September 8, 2010
Throw away your black glasses, guys, and get with the program. White is the new black, at least when it comes to eyewear.
Italians always have the last best word on design, so you can bet these will soon be popular in Peoria.
How Italians love their glasses. Don a pair and voilà: you’re an aviator, Grand Prix driver, star.
Women here are wearing them, too. And you, dear Reader? Maybe you’re already wearing white?
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Here’s Lucy, a reader from Canada, who’s been wearing white for quite some time–she got them at the Dollar Store!!! Way to go, Lucy!
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August 25, 2010
Who’s that man with the sweet-smelling basil bouquet?
It’s Ciccio Sultano, local hero, 2-Michelin-star chef at Ibla’s Duomo restaurant! But wait, what’s that strappy thing hanging around his person? Could it be … a purse?
In Sicily, they call them manbags. La borsa, gender feminine, is Italian for “purse.” Men shied away from carrying anything girly-sounding, so they quick coined a new word, il borsello, he-bag.
They’re all the rage. Yesterday I was last in a “line” of five at the post office, and everyone had a purse. (I was the lone woman, pity I had no camera.) It’s curious how what was once taboo has become legitimate, thanks to Italy’s virile soccer players who started the trendy trend.
You can carry a manbag for a stroll in town…
… or for a romp on the beach as fashion accessory to your Speedo.
 
Pretty figo (cool), eh? What do you think they keep in there?
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August 6, 2010
I got a little pile of emails and comments about proper beach attire for men a few blogs ago, so I decided to pursue the topic.
“It seems weird,” said my Italian friend Roberta as we sipped iced tea with a scoop of lemon granita floating on top, “to see a guy on the beach not wearing a Speedo. What’s he trying to hide?”
Sicilian men of all shapes and ages seem perfectly at home in skimpy little Speedos, as opposed to their American counterparts, who turn up at the beach swathed in baggy shorts down to the kneecap, complete with inner lining. Why is this? If you have any insights into this cross-cultural diff, fammi sapere, lemme know!
 
 
A recent article in the Huffington Post called “Speedos are Back” shows lots of great styles on the Milan runways!
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July 24, 2010
Everyone’s doin’ it. Wearing viola, that is.
Someone up North in Milano must have recently decreed that the masses wear purple. Or perhaps they issued the edict last year and the news took a while to filter down to Sicily. Whatever. The color is everywhere and stepping into the piazza on a warm summer night feels like stepping into a fieldful of blooming violets.
    
Are you wearing it, too?
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Here’s Lucy (below right). She’s a reader from Toronto (see her comment on this post) and wanted to be included as a Sicilian in purple. Happy to oblige!
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April 21, 2010
All the street is a stage in Sicily. Those who show up for a performance had better be decked out for the part.
 Living here feels like walking through a gigantic theatrical production. Flamboyance and fantasia rule.
 Couples herald their coupledom with coordinated outfits. My own husband will not agree to this. (He finds it a challenge to coordinate his socks.)
Some dress-alike couples are subtle.
Others not so much.
It wouldn’t be fair to i siciliani to say their obsession with clothing springs from narcissism. Elegance shows civic altruism: you are prettifying the landscape for the delight of your fellow citizens. As the old Sicilian saying goes, Mancia a gustu tò, càusa e vesti a gustu d’àutru; Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others.
Click here to read Shoes Like Gondolas, the true tale of my failed attempt to become an Italian fashion goddess. I wrote it after my first long visit to Ragusa Ibla (Sicily) in 2002.
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All photos and text on BaroqueSicily are Copyright of Jann Huizenga ©2009-2015, unless otherwise noted. Material may not be copied or re-published without written permission. All rights reserved.
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