#italian-fashion

#italian-fashion

Since Italy is home to such legendary designers as Giorgio Armani, Miuccia Prada, and Gianni and Donatella Versace, part of the opening ceremony was dedicated to Milan being one of the fashion capitals of the world. Dozens of models strutted across the stage in impeccable red, white, and green Armani suits, before revealing the Main Model, who wore a custom Armani Privé dress, not a suit, and carried the Italian flag.

Even before he showed his first collection, in 1975, Armani had been challenging ideas about the male suit and overcoat as they had been constructed since the 1790s on a basis of stiff canvas, interlining, padding and special stitching, so as to reshape a man's torso to look as much as possible like a classical statue. He discarded this armature that helped hide imperfections.

It all began with the jacket. Giorgio Armani twisted and bruised the angular piece of clothing - tearing out the padding, adjusting the proportions, moving the buttons - until he was left with something supple as a cardigan, light as a shirt. "Removing all rigidity from the garment and discovering an unexpected naturalness," as he put it years later. "It was the starting point for everything that came after." His 1970s reimagining of the jacket - a study in nonchalance - was to be his statement of purpose as a fashion designer.

A stylish Italian never lets the heat slow them down; one can find them looking effortlessly cool in tailored separates, even on the hottest summer nights in Palermo.