Sanremo ends up on the salmon pink pages of the Financial Times. The British newspaper has dedicated in recent days an extensive article dedicated to fashion male protagonist on the Ariston stage and relaunched with enthusiasm in the last few hours by the host of the event Amadeus.
“The male singers performed in a series of extravagant and often gender-nonconforming looks – writes the Financial Times – including a full embroidered Dolce & Gabbana skirt worn by I Santi, Francesi in front of an audience of around 15 million people , or about a quarter of the Italian population”.
For the British newspaper, which analyzes the looks of male artists and their evolution, interviewing Mimina Cornacchia, stylist of Mr Rain and Santi Francesi and Ramona Tabita, who dressed Ghali “it was a significant change for the Sanremo Festival, a staple of Italian television since 1951, where the most that could be asked of a competing male singer, in terms of stylistic extravagance, was a Giorgio Armani dress”. Once “it was women who dictated fashion in Sanremo, not men – says Tabita -. Now things have changed”.
The style revolution in Sanremo, according to FT, was caused by various factors. The festival, often described as ‘trash’ by its detractors, attracts a growing number of luxury brands and Italian male artists in recent years have adopted an experimental, sometimes gender fluid style, regardless of their sexual orientation.
Like Achille Lauro, who appeared at the 2020 festival swathed in a see-through bodysuit designed by former Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele, or Maneskin, Mahmood, Rosa Chemical and others.
The Sanremo stage would therefore be a mirror of the times, where the style seen on the international catwalks dedicated to menswear would be reflected, where gender fluid clothing is increasingly popular. “In Italy – underlines the newspaper – a country that has elected a conservative and right-wing government in 2022 and where LGBT rights are behind other Western democracies, men’s clothing at the Festival has caused some controversy and attracted some unhappy comments on social media average”.