Peter Howarth

It was 80 years ago in Pontedera, Tuscany, that the Vespa was born. Imagined by Enrico Piaggio, who wanted to give post-war Italy a new means of accessible mass transport, and created by aircraft designer Corradino D’Ascanio, the Vespa (Italian for “wasp”), with its distinctive step-through shape that allowed everyone – including women in dresses and priests in robes – to ride easily, has come to symbolize Italian sprezzatura. D’Ascanio, apparently, was no fan of motorcycles, disliking their messy, oily chains, the difficulty of changing tires after punctures, and what he felt was their uncomfortable riding positions.

“To date, I’ve made 75 deep submersible dives, including 33 to the Titanic,” filmmaker James Cameron announced at the inauguration of the new National Geographic Museum of Exploration in Washington, DC earlier this year. Only feet away from the Hollywood director lay a scale replica of the prow of the ill-fated ship, one of the exhibits at the museum, authentically covered in what look like assorted organisms of the deep. “In 2001, I started work with a new sub that could go to the deepest place in the world’s ocean, and I worked with this polymath engineer in Australia [called] Ron Allum,” Cameron explained. “It took us seven years to build the Deepsea Challenger, and that expedition would not have been possible without Rolex acting on its own spirit of exploration.

The decision by Italian clothing brand Corneliani to use American psychedelic folk musician and artist Devendra Banhart as its “face” for this season is a telling one. This firm from Mantua, which has been making sartorial Italian menswear for nearly a century now, made its name creating traditional style for professionals. But times change, and style with it. So, wisely, Corneliani has been developing modern menswear that uses its traditional tailoring and fabric knowledge but applies it to more casual designs. Style director Stefano Gaudioso Tramonte says, “Today’s Corneliani man is no less interested in quality, but the life he lives is less constrained by formal conventions. He still wants elegance, but not in an uptight way.

Firefighters are universally loved, right? Of course they are – heroic lifesavers rushing into danger in those big red engines… what’s not to like? Back in the 1980s Andrea Della Valle, a young Italian, was certainly fascinated when he encountered a bunch of ex firefighters who were wearing the garments of their former trade. “I met these guys when I was living in New York and they were all in these amazing jackets,” remembers Della Valle. “They looked so cool, I thought this could really work back in Italy.” At the time, the Italian casual wardrobe was still pretty formal, he says. What if he could introduce something that was really different. A jacket with hook-and-eye fastenings, for example?