
"1 The pleasure principle
So (over) secure are Italians in their masculinity that they permit themselves to indulge in a little light metrosexuality. There is an underlying Epicurean wisdom here: enjoy your clothing and you enjoy life. What is more, the ladies love it."
2 Investment of intellect
The Italian male is not ashamed to put thought into dressing, and to be seen to have done so. He regards the British lack of engagement with such matters as witless.
3 Formality with sprezzatura
The word above, like many of the best ones, has no exact English equivalent: in Baldassare Castiglione's 16th-century Book of the Courtier, it is used to denote a certain studied carelessness. Thus, even when both suited and booted, our hero is, as La Scarpa notes: "never rigid, always easy". He wears his clothes, rather than said clothes wearing him."
(Hannah Bets, The Telegraph)
read more
Recent Comments