Italian fashion and style are a huge influence on my work as an image consultant and on my personal style.  No matter which way the trend winds blow, each season shows a fresh purpose and intention.  I think no other foreign designer collective is more influential to Americans than the Italians who show in Milan.  Even mass producers closely follow the Italian designers; so if you aren’t a wearer of designer fashions, it’s likely you still experience their influence.

Italian ready-to-wear clothes are best exemplified by traditional, non-trendy pieces that mix and coordinate well together.  Italian ready-to-wear is always modern, respects the body’s proportions and contours, and employs just the right embellishments so it doesn’t look overdone.

Milan’s northern climate and proximity to mountains provides especially great autumnal inspiration.  It’s no wonder that this season’s fashions are a resplendent celebration of outdoorsy influences, but also of high city life.  Many of the fashions this fall seem to be at once a reminder of the birth of contemporary ready-to-wear from the 1970s.  The looks represent a high-spiritedness associated with freedom.  Yet, I sense designers also looked to the 1990s, which represented a time of austere fashions, reflecting peoples’ economic and practical sensibilities.

Today this duality recurs in our lives and in fashion. We want to dress in a way like we are free of restraint, and that we live comfortably again.  We want to show that we are successful and having fun again.  But maybe we’re not quite there yet and need to think practically.  This is exactly what made the Italian designers create fall collections that are a wonderful study in contrasting behavior.  Should we be exuberant or restrained?  Somehow the Italians are masters of achieving a balance of doing both at the same time.

Military-Safari
Etro shows militant restraint with this buttoned up and belted khaki suit.  The colorful booties and cape are just the right embellishments that make it hardly typical.  It’s classically camouflage in Prada’s double-breasted men’s coat, showing that it can be campy fun to go military.  Ferragamo is all chic safari in gorgeous suede and olive boots.  Note how the exotic skin belt, neck scarf, bag, and sunglasses could be great for exploring Milan or moving and shaking around Menlo Park.

Sweater Dressing
Ferragamo mixes analogous colored, shiny and textured fabrics for a highly wearable outfit that is also not what you think of when you think “sweater.”  Etro’s cardigan jacket style is not your daddy’s sweater.  Worn with tonal colored flat-front trousers, the look is sophisticated, modern, and youthful.  Prada’s cable knit with coordinating skirt is a great retro-styled approach where the textures and proportions are flattering, without the need to overdo it.

Structure & Ease
Bottega Veneta’s amethyst fluid frock with structured boots and bag is a fine example of subtle power, focusing on a less-is-more approach to dressing.  The dramatic jewel tone of the dress and the dark colored accessories are just enough to convey that she’s a woman to watch.  His Etro structured patterned modern jodhpurs are offset by unstructured outerwear.  Giorgio Armani’s ensemble features totally structured shoulders offset by totally fluid black velvet.  Add high contrasting tones and the tension between structure and ease is heightened to the max.

Green is Greed
If you hadn’t guessed, green is the season’s “it” color.  These examples from Bottega Veneta, Gucci, and Giorgio Armani showcase the color that, this season, symbolizes more than money.  After more than a couple of years of not making enough of it, everyone wants more.  By having tapped into these deeply saturated jewel toned greens, the designers seem to be responding to how we may have been feeling a recent loss of personal freedom.  But when we wear this range of green we want to focus attention on our own needs, and hopefully that means looking gorgeous this fall! [photo credit: style.com]

It’s one thing to see great examples of the latest fashions, but it’s another to know which are the right ones for your personal brand and style.  That’s why I help many highly successful individuals amp up their appearance with just the right clothing.  Similarly my design colleague Valentina Cirasola of Valentina Designs & Interiors does the same by renovating peoples’ homes. Check out her coordinating blog post about trends in modern Italian home design.  Enjoy.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps high-profile individuals revitalize, manage, and be secure in their personal visual brand. Visit JosephRosenfeld.com for details.

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