Anyway. So I'm meeting Lorenzo Riva. He is 80, maybe 90 - one of the oldest couturiers in the world - thin as a rake (what a terrible cliché to use, but I'm getting old, so the clichés are flowing) and absolutely charming. Almost everything he makes is made-to-measure and often costs more than 20,000 euros. That's like more than... oh, whatever.
Here's what meeting Lorenzo Riva does to me: I fancy, nowadays, that I'm going through my midlife crisis. At the rate at which I'm going, I'll probably live till 50. I'm 26. So this is midlife for me and therefore, my midlife crisis is here.
At his ripe old age, Riva is in love again. With one of the coolest bagmakers in the world - American Lana Marks, whose bags are totted by likes of Laura Bush, Oprah Winfrey, Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece and Reese Witherspoon. I'm interviewing Riva, who speaks only Italian, and all he will speak about is Lana Marks. He even takes a bow on the runway with her, kissing her hand. Often.
How utterly delectable, I think.
Essentially, Rome is about charm. A lot of rather good-looking people sort of passing by, sometimes silhouetted against the great monuments of ancient Rome. Hand-holding at the Colosseum, kissing at the Roman Ruins, stolen glances at the Sistine Chapel, like in Paris, Rome is all about grace and romance and elegance.
The two beggars, the only two that I saw during my three-day trip, seemed more drugged than poor.
Anyway, let's not talk beggars. Let's talk kiss the hand. So now, I've met Claudia and Vittoria - and both of them speak English (in this country that's rare enough). They are showing me around the Rome Fashion Week, which is like one of the biggest haute couture shows in Europe. The last of the great Italian masters show there - the likes of Riva and Balestra and for everyone who loves clothes just sitting through their shows is glorious.
And when I am sitting there, the music, operatic, seeps in and gives me a shiver; the clothes, almost theatrical, elevates everything around them - the setting, the front row, me. This is fashion at its best. This is why Virgina Woolf said: "Vain trifles as they seem, clothes... change our view of the world and the world's view of us".
What does this have to do with - kiss the hand?
Actually, kiss the hand is my metaphor for all that is elegant - and all that we are missing in our grab-a-burger-and-coke world. Elegance truly is the only thing worth aspiring for - it makes us human. In Rome, where handsome men and women kiss gently (smooching is for the Yanks) in ancient ruins, elegance truly is everything.
I am nibbling pasta and sipping house wine (it's incredible how nice even the house wine usually is in Rome), it's 1:30 in the afternoon and the restaurant is filled with the office crowd, in their natty ties and suits, but no one looks stressed, no one keeps looking at their watch, no seems like they have nasty bosses and looming deadlines back at office. This is country where they have a good lunch, work 30 hours a week and drink a litre of wine for dinner.
This is the land where they kiss the hand. first published:July 25, 2006, 16:27 ISTlast updated:July 25, 2006, 16:27 IST
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...do. It's the right thing to do. At least in Rome. It just looks so suave. Wonder why we don't do it in India?
Anyway. So I'm meeting Lorenzo Riva. He is 80, maybe 90 - one of the oldest couturiers in the world - thin as a rake (what a terrible cliché to use, but I'm getting old, so the clichés are flowing) and absolutely charming. Almost everything he makes is made-to-measure and often costs more than 20,000 euros. That's like more than... oh, whatever.
Here's what meeting Lorenzo Riva does to me: I fancy, nowadays, that I'm going through my midlife crisis. At the rate at which I'm going, I'll probably live till 50. I'm 26. So this is midlife for me and therefore, my midlife crisis is here.
At his ripe old age, Riva is in love again. With one of the coolest bagmakers in the world - American Lana Marks, whose bags are totted by likes of Laura Bush, Oprah Winfrey, Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece and Reese Witherspoon. I'm interviewing Riva, who speaks only Italian, and all he will speak about is Lana Marks. He even takes a bow on the runway with her, kissing her hand. Often.
How utterly delectable, I think.
Essentially, Rome is about charm. A lot of rather good-looking people sort of passing by, sometimes silhouetted against the great monuments of ancient Rome. Hand-holding at the Colosseum, kissing at the Roman Ruins, stolen glances at the Sistine Chapel, like in Paris, Rome is all about grace and romance and elegance.
The two beggars, the only two that I saw during my three-day trip, seemed more drugged than poor.
Anyway, let's not talk beggars. Let's talk kiss the hand. So now, I've met Claudia and Vittoria - and both of them speak English (in this country that's rare enough). They are showing me around the Rome Fashion Week, which is like one of the biggest haute couture shows in Europe. The last of the great Italian masters show there - the likes of Riva and Balestra and for everyone who loves clothes just sitting through their shows is glorious.
And when I am sitting there, the music, operatic, seeps in and gives me a shiver; the clothes, almost theatrical, elevates everything around them - the setting, the front row, me. This is fashion at its best. This is why Virgina Woolf said: "Vain trifles as they seem, clothes... change our view of the world and the world's view of us".
What does this have to do with - kiss the hand?
Actually, kiss the hand is my metaphor for all that is elegant - and all that we are missing in our grab-a-burger-and-coke world. Elegance truly is the only thing worth aspiring for - it makes us human. In Rome, where handsome men and women kiss gently (smooching is for the Yanks) in ancient ruins, elegance truly is everything.
I am nibbling pasta and sipping house wine (it's incredible how nice even the house wine usually is in Rome), it's 1:30 in the afternoon and the restaurant is filled with the office crowd, in their natty ties and suits, but no one looks stressed, no one keeps looking at their watch, no seems like they have nasty bosses and looming deadlines back at office. This is country where they have a good lunch, work 30 hours a week and drink a litre of wine for dinner.
This is the land where they kiss the hand.
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