Fashion Week – Talent, imagination, beauty. This is the fairy tale that the foreign press told about Women’s Fashion Week, which just ended in Milan. Tale spinners included the Washington Post, which discussed how the nomadic spirit of the catwalk spread throughout the city (February 23 – Sicilian fairy tale, nomadic spirit infuse Milan), Arab News, which described the magnificent end to the event (February 27 – Fantasy, furs draw Milan week to positive end), and the Chinese Global Times, which ran a piece on the young talent events (February 23 – The Vogue Talents Corner.com celebrates fresh creativity at Milan Fashion Week).
The French paper L’Express, paying tribute to beauty icon Carla Sozzani, underlined that Italian beauty was everywhere (February 26 – Carla Sozzani: “La beauté est partout en Italie”), while other papers wrote about some of the Italian collections, from Prada (Bloomberg Businessweek, February 21 – Prada’s woman is a fun-loving floozy) to Cavalli (Washington Post, February 22 – Cavalli turns up temperature with fiery looks), and Armani (Bloomberg Businessweek, February 24 – Lime illuminates gray at Armani in Milan) and Missoni (New York Times, February 24 – Missoni, With Texture*).
And there was also room for business along side pieces on the new trends. Some articles discussed brand growth – especially in for cashmere – like Agnona (New York Times, February 23 – With Stefano Pilati Designs, Agnona Intends to Grow) and Cruciani (Bloomberg Businessweek, February 21 – Italian cashmere maker Cruciani poised for growth).
Culture: cinema, art, literature – The week also brought a wealth of articles on culture. Pride of place belonged to The Great Beauty, a film that, according to the Washington Post, was a favorite to win an Oscar (February 26 – Italy’s ‘The Great Beauty’ favorite for Oscar win). And Paolo Sorrentino’s film continued as a critical success in the foreign press. This time, it was the Argentinian Clarin that described the decadent Rome, the backdrop as well as a star of the movie (February 20 – Roma era una fiesta).
There was also space for more classical mentions of Italian culture. The Wall Street Journal visited the Guggenheim show in New York on Italian Futurists (February 25 – ‘Italian Futurism, 1909-1944’ at the Guggenheim Museum*), while El Pais rediscovered Orlando Furioso, narrated in prose by Italo Calvino. According to the paper, the work made it possible to rediscover a classic, while bringing the model reader to a parallel and perhaps a temporal theater, compared to that of Ariosto (February 25 – Italo Calvino, al galope del hipogrifo).
Tourism, food and wine, from Venice to Sardinia – As usual, there were articles on tourist sites. The Wall Street Journal told its readers about the less commonly travelled canals in Venice ( February 20 – The Canal Less Traveled*), explaining to readers how to find a second house on the Lagoon, hunting down the city’s authentic side (20 – Second-Home Hunters Find the Authentic Side of Venice* ).
While El Pais told its readers how easy it is to fall in love with Tuscany and its landscapes, a patrimony of humanity (February 26 – Cómo enamorarse de la Toscana), the Times dedicated its travel section to family vacations, starting with Sardinia (February 22 – Travel doctor: a family holiday in Italy or Sardinia*). The New York Times also wrote about the region, suggesting a bike trip to discover the island, its food and its history (February 20 – Sardinian Food and History, Via Bike), while the Wall Street Journal reported on the plan of Eataly and the city of Bologna to create a food theme park, a sort of Disneyland of Food in the Emilian city (February 25 – Italian Fund Plans Food Theme Park).
Another two articles were also dedicated to Italy’s culinary genius. One was published by the Financial Times and explained how to make minestra (February 21 – Recipe: la minestra) and the other in The Times with a recipe for a special ingredient: pink radicchio (February 23 – The Ingredient: Pink radicchio*).
The economy – no less important, but with minor emphasis last week was economic news. The foreign press continued to note the record drop in public debts rates (Bloomberg Businessweek, February 26 febbraio- Italy Borrowing Costs Drop to Record Low at Bill Auction), and contained in-depth articles on the Italian economy. The Financial Times for example, in its Monday interview, wrote about a conversation with the president of the overseeing board of Intesa Sanpasolo, Giovanni Bazoli (February 23 – Giovanni Bazoli, chairman, Intesa Sanpaolo*).
* marked articles viewable online upon payment or registration