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Crazy Italians

MaximOfSurrey

Familiar Face
Messages
52
Location
BC, Canada
Okay, I don't mean crazy in a bad way. I was bumbling along through google when I stumbled across this man's website. Now to me he's a bit of a snob but what struck me was his write-up on Interno 8. What specifically got were the shirts... "some cuffs were cut to Art Deco angles. Another seemed to have a watch sewn into it. (In fact, a circular piece had been cut from the cuff, allowing the watch face to be visible but covering the strap – a conceit first devised by Signor Galasso for the President of the Fiat motor company.)"

Now this 'watch hole' interests me. For me at least it's a bit of a pain to pull back my shirt cuff because it's a litte close fitting. With these however all you'd have to do is pull back the jacket sleeve and presto. Not to mention it'd keep a hot leather/rubber watchband off my wrist in the boiling heat we sometimes get here in the summer.

Plus I think it's a neat innovation that I haven't seen around anywhere else.

Useful or tacky? Discuss.

shirts06.JPG


Article in question.

http://www.bownsbespoke.com/interno8.htm
 

cookie

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,927
Location
Sydney Australia
Thick wrists

John K Stetson said:
Gianni Agnelli wore his watch over his shirt cuff, and I've seen other Italian males do this too. Perhaps this cuff style is a compromise.

Maybe Agnelli had my problem...
 

Fletch

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,865
Location
Iowa - The Land That Stuff Forgot
Seems to me an affectation of the industrious north, where so much of "Italian style" comes from. (Gay Talese would probably disagree.)

Ironically, northerners are just about the least Crazy Italians of all.

(Disclaimer: I myself am of partly northern Italian heritage, and I am crazy.)
 

Jovan

Suspended
Messages
4,095
Location
Gainesville, Florida
As a person who relies on his mobile phone for the time... nope, not for me. It isn't very aesthetically pleasing to begin with.

I've never quite understood the watch over the cuff thing either. Is it really Italian? Because I wouldn't quite class tapered, no break trouser bottoms as being Italian either... those originated back in the '20s. A claim the Sartorialist has a habit of making is that the skinny end of your tie protruding out the bottom of the wide end is an Italian style too. What gives him this idea? It just looks to me as if the poor gent's tie is too long for him.
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
24,737
Location
London, UK
Saw this sort of thing years ago. Interesting curio, but not for me. I'm sure there's folks could make this work as part of their look, it's just not something i've ever cared for. I also like the idea that the shirt cuff provides a level of protection for my watch.
 

Orgetorix

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,241
Location
Louisville, KY...and I'm a 42R, 7 1/2
Agnelli generally wore barrel cuffs, with his watch over them. This (at least the one on the left) looks like a French-cuff interpretation of that style.

In any case it smacks too much of different for the sake of being different, which is never a good thing when it comes to men's style. And rarely is a good thing when it comes to anything else.
 

cookie

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,927
Location
Sydney Australia
Fletch's Italian Connection

Fletch said:
Seems to me an affectation of the industrious north, where so much of "Italian style" comes from. (Gay Talese would probably disagree.)

Ironically, northerners are just about the least Crazy Italians of all.

(Disclaimer: I myself am of partly northern Italian heritage, and I am crazy.)

Deal with it by eating less polenta and more tomatoes!
 

Milu

Familiar Face
The watch over the cuff was an affectation by Agnelli, used as apparently watches, worn normally by him around the wrist, would stop. Others simply copied him. The story that it was huge cocaine intake that caused the problem is probably mistaken.
 

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