Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site Shops at: Zazzle & PrintFection
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Fashion
and Beauty, Latest Fashion Shows, Designers, Tips, Shopping...
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| Molly Coddle yourself with some unique fashion statements from MollyCoddle.com
This jacket was designed by avant-garde Italian-born fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Click here or on the jacket to go to my page on her, with lots of images of her creative designs.
Click on the book cover to read more about it, before downloading it. The e-book does not require a special e-book reader for you to read the it on your computer.
Here are two online shoe sellers, one offering great savings, the other exclusive shoes.
Site visitor 'Artigiano' is a U.K. based clothing and accessories online mail-order store that ships throughout Western Europe. The style is all Italian, but the sizes, prices and comfort are easier to live with. Click on the image above, from their site, to visit their online store.
The Valentino store in Milan. Click on the image to go to the Valentino website.
Gucci handbags. Click on the image to go to the Gucci website.
To shop on-line via Amazon.com at these stores, click on a logo.
Women's fashions for work and fun.
Forzieri says it's 'put together Italy's Finest Brands to offer you the Absolute Best from the Land of Style, Elegance and Tradition. Shop over 50 Premium Designers direct from Florence, Italy'.
Sophia Loren, the Classic Italian Beauty (Angelina Jolie looks like she could be a cousin of the young Sophia). Click on the image to go to 'Fashion Net', the self-proclaimed "Guide to All Things Chic".
Monica Bellucci, a new classic Italian beauty with similar proportions, here in "The Matrix Reloaded".
Marcello Mastroianni, the Classic Latin Lover
Rudolph Valentino, the Original Latin Lover
Latin lover type: tall, dark and masculine. A cleft in the chin doesn't hurt, and don't forget the stubble on the face. This is Italian soap star Franco Boschi.
And for laugh, you can buy, for yourself or a friend, or for a hen-party (wedding shower) a life-sized Fabio cardboard stand-up. You can even choose between two versions, for about 33 bucks each. Click through to get 'Fabio's measurements', and to have a laugh! (Currently out of stock, popular guy, sorry, but you can still click through for a laugh!)
And for more fun, here's a cute image of Sophia and Marcello together.
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Fashion and DesignersThe money that is spent on clothes in Italy is astounding. The prices in the store windows are frightening. And as one shop keeper explained to me, the more expensive the item in the window, the faster it sells. Everyone wants to be seen wearing the item that all their friends have seen advertised. For your average Italian, the price also denotes the value. An Italian woman once complimented my dress. When I told her what a great deal I got on it, she told me in a motherly tone, "but you mustn't tell anyone that, my dear". To see what the Italian fashion designers are doing these days, Mode Italia, a magazine published by Mondadori, offers a list of links to Italian designers' websites. They also describe the latest fashion shows. And to read about avant-garde Italian-born fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, click here to go to my page on her, with lots of images of her creative designs. For other questions about fashion and it's history, there is no better site than Fashion-Era.com. Check it out, but be sure to come back here. There's lots more below! Looking GoodTips and Tricks for a Polished Appearance is a free e-book by a woman who tells you what you are doing wrong and how to correct it. I like to call it, How to Look like an Italian Woman. I thought this book was a joke until I downloaded it and read it. Don't let the cover fool you! (If you need help with e-books, try my free Lessons on E-text and E-book downloading and reading, available from the main page of this site.) Click here to go to the download site where you can read more.
Shopping On-LineIf you're a fan of Italian fashion design, you can shop for all kinds of things from all kinds of stores all via Amazon.com. I highlight some here, with direct links. For my lists of these items/stores available at Amazon.com, just click on one: Carabella offers women's fashions for work and for fun.
Forzieri says it's 'put together Italy's Finest Brands to offer you the Absolute Best from the Land of Style, Elegance and Tradition. Shop over 50 Premium Designers direct from Florence, Italy'.
And here you can find similar items for a bit less.
'Artigiano' is a U.K. based clothing and accessories online mail-order store that ships throughout Western Europe. The style is all Italian, but the sizes, prices and comfort are easier to live with.
Fairytale Endeavors is a family run company that makes prom dresses, wedding dresses, christening and first communion dresses and gowns for the Quinceanera, and dresses for all special occasions in all sizes including plus sizes, and very reasonable prices.
Shoe fanatic? Don't spend a fortune to look good. Try this online shop that claims to be the lowest priced on the net for department store shoes: Love My Shoes.
This next one isn't cheap, SimplySoles.com, but the shoes are very exclusive, and they offer a free catalog, and shoes for all occasions. And they have great features on their website to speed up online shopping. They even offer free shipping of exchanges in case you find you have the wrong size or style for you. No hassles.
This one is self-explanatory.
Shopping In Italy FlorenceFashion.com
is a site visitor that offers luxury services in Florence. Their
blurb goes like this: "Luxury in Florence: Top boutiques, outlets,
shops, hotels, restaurants, tourist
The DolceVita site has a wonderful fashion page with links to a history of Italian fashion, shopping streets in various Italian cities, the latest trends, events and the hottest fashion schools. This is the place to keep up on the latest Italian fashion trends, trends that often end up around the western world within a year. If you want Italian designer fashions, but shy away from paying the prices, a wonderful E-zine on Italy is offering a book that lists discount designer stores in Italy. Click here to read more about it. Be sure to scroll down to the item, Designer Bargains in Italy. There is a free on-line listing of Italian factory outlets. Click here to view that page at the site of the Italian Newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Style and BeautyMost Italians have an an innate esthetic sense that, at times, can be very annoying. The times I'm thinking of are when:
The non-annoying times concerning the innate Italian sense of style are when Italians are:
I worked in advertising for a while, and was amazed at how many Italian Art Directors there were in the industry. As one of them pointed out to me when I mentioned this, they are rarely the Account Executives because, and this is a quote, "Italians find deadlines irritating". Italians have rather rigid ideas of beauty, however. Forget the eye-of-the-beholder stuff. We're talking Leonardo's multiples and measurements! Recently I heard an Italian television presenter comment an a beautiful comedienne (she really was a delicate looking beauty) saying, "and she wasn't bad looking, despite being much too short to really be considered beautiful". All those present in the studio, Italians, agreed with her.
WeightYou won't see many overweight people in Italy. If you do, they will most likely be men, or grandmothers or great-grandmothers. The worry about pudgy, inactive, TV-watching children is a new phenomenon. While Italians do generally eat a healthy diet, one of the main reasons for the lack of overweight women is economic. There are few well-paid jobs that go to women in Italy, which means that, as in all traditional societies, the main route to financial security for a woman is through marriage. And Italian men rarely marry overweight women. I recall overhearing a young Italian man talking with his mates, commenting on an overweight, yet very beautiful, young woman. "Look at that one! How could her mother let her get like that?" And, yes, it is the mothers who critique, humiliate, badger, berate and starve their daughters all in the name of helping them find a husband. I overheard lots of that too, and saw some young women underdeveloped due to long term under-nourishment. Yet ridiculously, there are the Italian men who love women with big appetites for food (but not fat women) because they assume these women have big appetites for sex, too. These same men explained that they would never marry this kind of woman, only use her as a lover, because if they neglected that kind of wife, she would cheat on him. And I recall often seeing groups of men, whose bellies protruded so far they could not see their own feet, critiquing women harshly as they passed by. Perhaps they considered their bank accounts large enough not to apply the same harsh standards to their own appearance? Just a thought... When such a high value is placed on low body weights, eating disorders are a natural consequence. I witnessed women:
If you wish to be as thin as Italian women, stop and reconsider your wish. You should aim to reach a Body Mass Index of between, roughly, 20 and 25 to be at a healthy weight (page with BMI tables with metric and imperial systems) And I would strongly recommend you do not follow the unhealthy examples I cited above. They can cause long-term damage to your health. The best advice I've found for losing weight safely is this, from the So You Wanna site.
Click here or on the image above to go there and learn a lot in a short amount of time. And go to my practical page Tips for Feeling Full on Less and Reducing Appetite, that relies on lots of basic of the traditional Italian diet.
Exercise and SportNo diet is complete without exercise, but rarely do you see anyone exercising in public in Italy. Men playing football (soccer / calcio) is the main exception to this rule, but I doubt they would class calcio as mainly exercise. Sport is acceptable in gyms, but is often deemed improper in public places like parks or city streets, especially it seems when practiced by women. I had one elderly woman hiss at me as I jogged one evening after work near my hotel, "Scandalous!" Jogging is practiced in Italy (it used to be called "footing" until they discovered that was incorrect), but usually only on tracks or special routes, not on city streets.
Books About Italian DesignAnd to find books about Italian designers and fashion you can search Amazon.com with this Search tool, to see what's available, what people say about the books, and what they cost. Just enter 'Books' in the 'Search' field, and the designer's name, for example (or 'Italian fashion design'...), in the 'Keywords' field. Then click on the 'Go' button to see the list of books. Amazon also sells fashion. You can search what's on offer in the 'Apparel and Accessories' category.
Click on the logo to go to an incredibly rich fashion history site: Fashion Era.com.
Check out my Healthy Italian Lifestyle Shirts and Bags at my PrintFection shop. They have lots of shirt colors, and bulk discount prices begin with the second shirt.
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Visit my Italian Soaps and Perfumes page
Visit my Elsa Schiaparelli page
Check out my Healthy Italian Lifestyle Shirts and Bags at my PrintFection shop.
They have lots of shirt colors, and bulk discount prices begin with the second shirt.