What’s original about a scarf?
Lots of things. First of all, it’s a timeless accessory. Perfect for a girl or a boy, for teenagers, for women and men, for any gender, nationality, age.
A scarf is an essential original accessory because it is practical, useful, elegant, precious or popular.
In this strange and stormy 2020, perhaps for the first time the scarf is no longer the heritage of a few, fashion accessory of designers to accompany a designer dress.
It has become something useful and popular and has touched every social class.
During lockdown, when there were no masks, many of us used scarves to defend our noses and mouths, becoming elegant yet practical in the difficult situation.
The few people who went out for groceries seemed to be cheerful spots of color in the gloom of the moment.
Scarves perhaps found at the bottom of the drawer and never used, they were then extremely useful.
After the lockdown, many customers continued to use them, almost with superstitious gestures for a lighter and more colorful future.
It is no coincidence in my opinion that I recorded more sales during the lockdown time.
People needed to protect themselves but also, as many have written to me, an extreme need for beauty and hope. Almost a protection and superstition.
And what about closed hairdressers, when everyone had to make do with cutting their hair? Many people have retrieved scarves and braided them in their hair, hiding imperfect cuts or improvised hair dyes.
Scarves like turbans, like cheerful bows on your head, like colourful Caps or precious fabric clips.
The scarf is no longer a superfluous commodity but an indispensable fashion accessory for a new era.
Because this magic square or this incredible rectangle, illuminate the faces of everyone, men and women and there is no need to be made of make-up or perfect. The fabric frames every face and makes it interesting.
Whoever folds it over their head takes on a theatrical attitude. The scarf lifts the head as if it had a crown and feels like a catwalk protagonist.
All this also means being faster in dressing, any dress takes second place to the scarf. And so dressing is also more practical. Make-up, fixing your hair, everything takes second place.
And what about the time that passes and the first wrinkles on the neck? Don’t worry, a scarf wrapped around the neck adorns it without covering it with force. A scarf around the neck makes a face glow and colours it elegantly.
Not to mention that if you forget your mask at home, you can untie the knot from your neck and protect your nose and mouth in seconds.
A scarf instead of a belt: much better. Colour on the hips, softness of form. No bother holding pants or skirts with a belt that adorns and tightens at the hips.
But also on the wrist, like a bracelet. Much cheaper, much more personal.
Or on the bag, braided on the handles, or on an ankle, to adorn the feet maybe on a summer evening with light clothes.
Perfect in a suitcase, when we can travel freely in the post-covid era. It is light, often made of materials that do not crumple and takes up very little space.
If necessary we can take it out of the bag or suitcase and we have a remarkable change of look.
If it is large, it will be very comfortable on the beach as a pareo, or it will protect us on cool evenings. If it is small it will light a pocket in color, two intertwined scarves will be a necklace for a last minute party.
Certainly a perfect gift at any age and for any woman or man.
You’re never wrong when you give a scarf.
Luciano Pavarotti, the great tenor, wore long red scarves and square and coloured scarves, like Federico Fellini who directed his films with a very personal look. They were highlights of their personality.
Brigitte Bardot made us dream on the streets of Saint Tropez and before her Audrey Hepburn entered the myth both with the movies and in her private life, with all those scarves on her head, her neck, on her thin waist.
Vanessa Redgrave with a scarf like a tie in Antonioni’s Blow-up.
And after the model Twiggy in the seventies who gives the scarves a new, feminist, gritty cut, up to Susan Sarandon in Thelma &Louise as a symbol of redemption and freedom.
But above all, timeless, regal, colorful, unique, perfect is she: Queen Elizabeth. Perhaps the longest lasting testimonial of the scarf, perhaps the most iconic model we can think of.
And after all, in these dark times, after a first lockdown and a virus that crosses the world crosswise and returns after leaving, we all think about recreating our lives in a different way.
Clothes are our business card.
But we don’t always have an endless wardrobe.
And the scarf is an accessory that makes us feel regal and can be very cheap.
It adorns us when we don’t know what to wear and when necessary it becomes a mask.
Life from now on will have to be smarter, lighter, faster and more practical.
And the scarf that is so original, so unique, also becomes so popular and so versatile.
It’s like Queen Elizabeth, timeless with no deadline, but also without social divisions.
Its originality is this: it can interpret many situations and dresses anyone.
It is regal and democratic.
And after all, it represents well this epochal passage after such a strange, terrible and implacable 2020. There is a need for colour, lightness, versatility, hope and to feel better all of us.
(If you are italian and want to read the text in your language, click HERE).
