Marina Rinaldi Experience

Cosmit.it - photo by Alessandro Russotti

This time of year Milan undergoes a transformation: the Salone del Mobile, otherwise known as the Milan Furniture Fair, is the global benchmark for the home-furnishing sector taking place from 9 to 14 April and which sees the city of Milan invaded by visitors.

Enlivening the city are not only onlookers and lovers of art and design: besides the exhibition held at the fairgrounds in Rho, the streets of Milan are indeed livelier than ever thanks to a series of collateral events, the most famous of which is the Fuorisalone. The Salone del Mobile made its first appearance in 1961 focusing on promoting Italian furniture and furnishing accessories on the export market, and letting the world know about the quality of Italian products.

From 1967, the Salone became an international event and is now the largest fair of its kind in the world. Milan, playing the starring role thanks to the numerous events scattered through the streets of the city, also becomes glamorous thanks to the fusion of fashion and design. The “hot” spots for design lovers and fashionistas are the districts of Tortona, Brera, Lambrate, as well as, of course, the high-class shopping district and the Corso Como area. Many boutiques, in fact, host artist installations, displays and exhibitions conveying the different perspectives of design. FAI’s itinerant proposal is both interesting and original as it organises a cycling tour through the city with stops dedicated to food and wine tasting routes.

Cosmit.it - photo by Saverio Lombardi Vallauri

But what are the novelties and trends of this edition in terms of exhibitions? The most important representatives of the world of furniture and lighting present (more than 2,500) have shown great attention to materials. Thanks to technological innovation, but also because of the economic crisis, there has been a renewal in the use of materials with a preference for wood. In this respect, FederlegnoArredo proposed the initiative “I Wood like” to try to recover what has always been a historical heritage of our country: wood. Even the Maestro table by Gumdesign follows this trend: it is made from a natural black metal sheet and spruce trestles, a conceptual inspiration in the colours of marble and terracotta that bring out the naturalness. Valsecchi, through its A-Chair, uses wood in a project which takes its inspiration from Japanese traditional woodworking architecture. And still the amazing tables by Massimiliano Locatelli created by blending bronze and mahogany.

On the other hand, plastic is the star of the tables designed by Zerodisegno: lots of coloured drops that revive and add brightness to the mirrored steel console. Great attention is also placed on eco-sustainability, a trend that makes the recycling and the regeneration of materials very fashionable. We also find unusual materials such as recycled cork in the chairs and stools designed by Domitalia. But also recycled cardboard in the eco-furniture by P-One: aesthetically irresistible bookcases, tables and chairs.

Cosmit.it - photo by Annalisa Cimmino

This is also the year of lighting, which has become a staple for furniture, using various techniques to manage it, create it and shape it and which will have a space all of its own at Euroluce. Among the most unusual lamps we find those by Zava, lacquered modules defined by their creator Enrico Azzimonti as “luminous clothes.”

He gets his inspiration from the once-upon-a-time chandeliers Life by Karman, a lamp with a retro flavour but which is created by using state-of-the-art technology.

Or the luminous cat by Myyour which absorbs light during the day and remains lit at night. Among the other original proposals, we recommend the Kartell bathroom by Laufen, an interconnected ecosystem where sinks, toilets, bidets, faucets, cabinets, shower trays, bathtubs, lights and accessories coexist in a flexible manner, changing their appearance in order to satisfy different needs.

Even after fifty years, Milan’s Design Week does not seem to have lost any of its prestige and original bounce, confirming its hallmark of Italian excellence able to present new and groundbreaking products and able to move the public and motivate sales.

Sølve Sundsbø, Love, Spring/Summer 2011 © © Sølve Sundsbø/Art + Commerce

Imagine unrolling a film with eight million frames, and wanting to make it into the story that tells the tale of the creative path that led fashion images to be what they are today.

A complex task, carried out scrupulously and effectively by Nathalie Herschdorfer, photography historian, who had the idea of sifting through the Condé Nast archives in New York, Paris, London and Milan, where all the pictures ever taken for Vogue and other magazines by this publisher are stored.

Edward Steichen, American Vogue, December 1923 © ©1923 Condé Nast

The results are on show until 7 April 2013, at the Fondazione Forma per la Fotografia (piazza Tito Lucrezio Caro) in Milan, and are published in a catalogue edited by Contrasto with an exclusive interview with Franca Sozzani.

It starts with the first photograph published in Vogue in 1913, a portrait of the socialite Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney by Baron Adolf de Meyer, and ends with a still life worn by Michael Baumgarten in Teen Vogue in 2006. In between, a hundred years of fashion history by prestigious artists including Edward Steichen, one of the first great photographers to work for Vogue in the Twenties, and one of the first to accept the challenge and ignore anyone who accused him of selling out for fashion.

John Rawlings, American Vogue, March 1943 © ©1943 Condé Nast

Or Peter Lindbergh, who immortalised important advertising campaigns for Marina Rinaldi. The list is long, from John Rawlings to Cecil Beaton, to Helmut Newton, Mario Testino, Paolo Roversi and others besides. So many in fact, that without seeing the exhibition it is difficult to understand that the photographers are not actually the stars of this profession. But then this is fashion photography: an artistic language of incredible strength and visual influence, where many factors work with the photographer to build the image, the clothes, the editors, the models, make-up artistis and the stylists.

As we very well know.

For the Echo Awards 2011, the young pop soul brit sensation Adele (whose real name is Laurie Blue Adkins) chose the refined elegance of a little black dress designed by Marina Rinaldi.

Adele wearing Marina Rinaldi

The much praised passe-partout in every woman’s wardrobe, worn with court shoes and proposed here in one of its very chic versions with three-quarter length sleeves and plissé details, becomes an impeccable and ultra-glamorous versatile outfit even on stage.

The final result is like the singer’s voice in Rolling in the Deep: perfect, intense and raspy, able to enchant and to move.

Top marks for the look, which is definitely to be imitated.

And if you still weren’t convinced that the little black dress was the highly versatile dress for all occasions, you will now need to reconsider the idea.

The cover of Curvy

“Glamour, denied to voluptuous women, revolves around a small amount of people who have a hyperactive metabolism. Well, the party is over. After years of aesthetic oppression the prawn, bread stick, sole or stick-thin shaped women have to give up and democratically share the style throne with curvy women [...] a soft and seductive reality”.

Now, the fact that curvy women have always been considered sexy is known, so there was no need for us to read about it in the preface of a book. But if two prominent names in Italian fashion that are beautiful, smart and definitely curvy, have decided that curves have made a comeback in fashion (with the intention of staying there), how can you not believe them?

This, and much more can be read in “Curvy. Il lato Glamour delle Rotondità” by Daniela Fedi and Lucia Serlenga, a book that exams the glamourous side of curves, it reveals secrets, stratagems and addresses, tells anecdotes and real-life stories whilst still maintaining that touch of humour that alleviates the weight of being curvy.

This book was advanced by their American agent, Vikie Satlov, she too is curvy, and took shape within a few hours, despite such a busy time, as Daniela Fedi reveals. But then, there are so many things to talk about.

Daniela Fedi and Lucia Serlenga

For example, according to facts “only five percent of women effortlessly reflect the rules imposed by fashion. It is estimated that models are 9 percent  thinner and 16 percent taller than normal. The conclusion is that there is an enormous gap between the real woman and the ideal one” says Daniela. “Don’t forget that curves are a sign of genetic evolution. The famous zero size only makes sense in TV, where figures are exaggerated. But in the future, with anamorphic vision, this problem will no longer exist. That’s why the future will belong to the curvier”.

So, it’s an objective look at reality that has been away from the catwalks for too long. But it’s also a collection of suggestions underlining the most glamorous side of one’s own curves. “No to minimalism” declares Daniela Fedi with no possibility of appealing  “yes to heels, which take off a kg for every centimetre, to the sheath dress and to brace-cut dresses. And of course great attention to lingerie, which I’ve always had a taste for”.

“It’s not easy to dress a curvy woman” she adds. “Marina Rinaldi, for example, deals with fashion glamorously. I find that they do a really good job with wearability”.

If you want to find out more then don’t miss the next date for Friday 10^th June, at 6 pm, at the Chiostri di San Barnaba in Milan, where Daniela and Lucia will be presenting their sharp, ironic and factual book. And – let’s admit it – there was a need for it.

Different forms, all wonderfully beautiful in their uniqueness, generate otherwise impossible suggestions when placed next to each other. Could we have missed an appointment with such authentic beauty?
At Euroflora, the most important flower show in the Mediterranean where every five years flowers and plants gather together from all over the world, Marina Rinaldi brought the freshness of its new Denim Collection and of its testimonial Crystal Renn by showing a video on the maxi-wall at the entrance of the exhibition and by hanging a 120 m2 panel (a small garden, to keep to the same theme …) on the external wall of the Palafiera. Not to mention the shades inspired by the most amazing bulbs that colour the windows of the Marina Rinaldi store in via XX Settembre.
And if the slogan accompanying the denim collection is “Curvy is Up”, that of the Euroflora 2011 edition that ended yesterday was “The Flower that Unites” : an invitation to rediscover the deep reasons of a peaceful coexistence among men, respecting the diversity of people and cultures, that particularly enhances the uniting values. Among these, the respectful amazement for the beauty of nature in which flowers and plants together with their colours and scents become a symbol.
Who has had the chance to plunge into the scents and colours of this beautiful green living room?

Have you already seen the backstage video posted here? As announced in previous post, here you will find the interview with some of the participants at the “My Beautiful Torino” event.  The proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to Area o.n.l.u.s, a non-profit charity organisation.

On 27 April 2011 in Florence, a city of great international renown, Marina Rinaldi will be opening the store in via Panzani 1, refurbished.

Marina Rinaldi - Tribute to Florence

There will be a real ‘Tribute to Florence’ for this occasion. A project called “Florentine Madonnas“: 13 famous women from the aristocracy, entrepreneurship and government establishments have been photographed by the portrait artist Lorenzo Poccianti.

Marina Rinaldi - Tribute to Florence

Their photos will be put on show on 28 April at the Teatro Comunale during the Premiere of the Florentine Maggio Musicale that Marina Rinaldi is co-sponsoring.
A Gala Dinner in the Piccolo Teatro for 300 esteemed guests, among which Sofia Loren, will close the evening.

Dresden is known as “Florence of the Elbe” because of its many baroque and rococo style buildings and the river Elbe that defines its contours.

Marina Rinaldi in Dresden

But if its beauty remains unknown to most people, friends of Marina Rinaldi will surely have a great reason to visit Dresden: in Toepferstrasse 2, in fact, (as we had announced) a new boutique has just opened for those in search of MR collections.

Marina Rinaldi in Dresden

In an area of 100 m2, within walking distance of both Hofkirche and Zwinger along a pedestrian zone where most of the architectural masterpieces of the city and the most important art galleries converge, you can find Marina Rinaldi clothes and accessories (for all occasions DAY-NIGHT-CEREMONY- SPORT, including the NEW Denim Collection recently featured in the shop window), immersed as always in an atmosphere of elegant design, made ​​up of minimal furnishings and neutral tones, interspersed with wood and chrome details.

Marina Rinaldi in Dresden

Here’s a small taste and of course, we hope to see you!

Where: Toepferstrasse 2, QF Quartier an der Frauenkirche, Dresden

But also journalists, bloggers, Marina Rinaldi devoted friends and ordinary people.

Marina Rinaldi - My beautiful Torino

From the glamorous icon Emma Agnelli to the President of the Teatro Stabile di Torino Evelina Christillin, from the art collector Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo to the watercolourist Paolo Galetto and many others.

Last Thursday saw a succession of diverse people and personalities from Turin, sharing that same understatement that is so dear to the city (which has so much in common with Marina Rinaldi collections), giving life to a very successful event to celebrate the restyling of the new Marina Rinaldi store in Piedmont’s regional capital.

Marina Rinaldi - My beautiful Torino

A convivial drink in a chic and rigorous place like the host city, but rich in that liveliness that Turin sparingly shows, in which the clothes are arranged along the perimeter of the walls and the rest of the space is dedicated to a meeting area. A space for culture, ideas and art where installations can find a place like the white tree decorated by Paul Galetto’s watercolours that currently faces the passers-by in one of the flagship store windows.

Marina Rinaldi - My beautiful Torino

Fashion cannot disregard the world that surrounds it and Marina Rinaldi is well aware of this. This is why the showroom restyling was also the opportunity to present a book, “My beautiful Torino”, which looks into the “peculiar nature of Turin’s inhabitants” through interviews with some of Turin’s well-known female personalities. The proceeds will be donated to Area Onlus, a non-profit organisation dedicated to helping children and young people with disabilities.

We now leave you with a backstage video and soon with that of the event showing the interviews with the protagonists.

A golden opportunity to admire a top selection of the most significant looks of the upcoming spring-summer 2011 collection and to learn some tricks about dressing. How to look thinner, how to show off your figure by exalting your strong points and hiding your faults because believe it or not, there is no woman in world that does not have at least one fault.

Elisa D'Ospina in MR Shop Rome

The exciting event was livened up by the first warmth of the Roman sun and by the enthusiasm of the brand’s devoted customers that gathered in Marina Rinaldi’s store in via Tuscolana, only a step away from Cinecittà. The show saw the participation of Marina Rinaldi’s model Monica, with her sweet smile and Elisa D’Ospina, curvy icon and famous plus size top model.

Marina Rinaldi - Denim collection Rome

The two models walked the catwalk not only showcasing the seasonal trends but also everything that can help in choosing the right look for the right event. The range went from casual tracksuits to what to wear to a première or a religious ceremony. As well as the perfect outfit for a happy hour or a night out at the disco, which saw the return of vibrant pop colours and graphic white and black for a VIP event.