Drass Tecnologie Sottomarine

You are what you wear

Italians always take great care to wear the right clothes on the right occasion. This is never a casual choice - it is important to wear the proper clothes for the role you are playing. The station master must look like a station master. He must act the part too since he is on stage in the great film set of life. This is where style is so important. The taxi-driver, the teacher, the doctor, the lawyer and the engineer must all dress, act and behave like taxi-drivers, teachers, doctors lawyers and engineers. Taking life easy and being seen to take things easy, whether you are at the beach, in the disco or even at work, is part of bella figura, which explains why Italians are often happy to work in jobs that might seem very boring, such as lifeguards or security guards. There they can be on show all the time and be seen to be looking good and taking it easy - on the beach, or hanging around the bank looking important dressed up as a gunslinger. It doesn't matter that the job is not so pleasant in winter, nor whether the guard is actually able or even allowed to use the gun, as long as he looks the part.

Nowhere can this be seen better than in the world of sport. It makes no difference if you can't swim very well, for that sub-aqua course you must have the right clothes and gear and style and you must look and act like a sub-aqua diver. This is why the latest fashion is important, for it makes your performance more convincing.

Many Italian lofts are full of sportswear and gear, bought at great expense, but abandoned because they are out of date or their owner has taken up another activity.

Sports are often taken up just for the look. Cross-country skiing enjoyed a boom when skin-tight Lycra ski-suits were invented. It was worth braving the freezing cold and the physical agony of this tiring sport for a couple of hours in order to be able to show off in the bar afterwards (and it might even have been good for your health, too).

Italians are very observant of how other people dress, particularly foreigners who are generally considered to dress badly.

During the Second World War the Allied prisoners of war who managed to escape from prison camps had far more problems travelling in Italy than in any other country in Europe. The suits and clothes they made from their uniforms, sheets and blankets often took in the Germans, but rarely fooled the Italians.

The price rises that have come with the euro have alarmed the population. Many shopkeepers ignored the official exchange rate and simply knocked off one zero (so that 1,000 lira became 1.00 ,euro), thus doubling their profit at one stroke. But of even greater concern to the smart set is the effect of the new currency on their appearance. Unlike the old Italian paper money, it has lots of chunky coins, thus ruining the style of figure- hugging designer jeans with unseemly bulges in the pockets.