Fashion Week – “A great city” that made great effort to revitalize Fashion Week. And the result, partly thanks to the inauguration at Teatro La Scala on September 18, was extremely positive. What the foreign press called “proof” of the demonstration of the power of Milan was clamorous in last week’s shows of women’s fashion in articles on the inauguration with tenor Vittorio Giglio (September 19 on Wall Street Journal – There’s a Big City Out There Called Milan and the Financial Times – The Anna effect is felt in Italy*) and the collections (The Times, Weptember 18 –Milan Fashion Week in pictures*) of Italian brancs such as Gucci (The Guardian, September 18- Milan fashion week: Gucci’s latest collection works out well) and Fendi (New York Times, September 20 – Fendi’s Ethereal Effect). At the margins of Fashion Week, Diesel and its “global success” was also a topic of interest (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 19 – Das blaue Wunder aus Italien).
But luxury is not limited to fashion. According to the reaction of the Financial Times to the words of Sergio Marchionne, the glamour of Made in Italy can be found in Fiat models (September 15 – Fiat chief Sergio Marchionne plays to Italy’s strengths*). According to the Turin-based carmaker’s CEO, Fiat will be targeting its high end models in Italian factories.
The righting of the Costa Concordia “A success” (Le Monde, Le redressement du “Costa-Concordia” s’est achevé avec succès), “relief” (The Times – Relief as Costa Concordia is upright once again), but also “pride” (El Pais – El ‘Concordia’ enorgullece hoy a Italia). These were some of the comments written between September 16-18 on the righting of the Costa Concordia, wrecked on the Island of Giglio and a symbol of an Italy that “works” (Handelsblatt – Ein Italien, das funktioniert). The articles, accompanied by photos and videos of the operation, hailed the 19 hours of works and the absence of significant pollution risks (Financial Times – Wrecked Costa Concordia hauled upright*; Wall Street Journal – Crews Right Cruise Ship in Waters Off Italy; The Daily Beast – Costa Concordia Upright;El Mundo – Así es la operación para reflotar el ‘Costa Concordia’).
Culture and gastronomy – As usual, there were articles about Italy’s culture and culinary arts. Le Monde ran a piece on Bernardo Bertolucci, in Paris for a retrospective of his films (September 16 – Bernardo Bertolucci fait de nouveau tanguer Paris), and El Pais wrote about Paolo Grassino, the sculptor who depicts the “obscure side of life” and is showing his “disquieting” works in Madrid ” (September 14 – Grassino se enfrenta al lado más oscuro). Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal focused on dishes from the Sicilian tradition with a list of recipes that can bring “vacation” in the kitchen (September 18 – A Sicilian Summer on the Mainland). Finally an article in the South China Morning Post ran a piece about Nebbiolo and the wine’s popularity in Hong Kong with the success of the Piedmont producers Gaja (September 20 – Keeping it in the family, Gaja wine feels the love in Asia).
* marked articles viewable online upon payment or registration