I just couldn’t resist.
He was on his cell outside of our favorite weekend breakfast place with his two stylish boys. And to me, he represents a standard Italian dad under the age of 55 on any given day in Modena!
The Reason He Dressed
I didn’t actually speak to stylish Italian dad. I just silently asked for permission to take his picture while he chatted on his cell and he silently gave it to me. I don’t know where he was going with his kids, or what he was up to, all I know is that to have his phone conversation he STOPPED WALKING instead of pushing the stroller and walking at the same time.
This was taken on a Saturday a month ago. Actually between today and tomorrow i will be posting a whole punch of posts about this particular Saturday a month ago, because I am really behind in sharing all the things I want to share! Was I not supposed to share Italian dad just because he is a few weeks old?? ….. Oh I don’t think so!
What He Wore
Sneakers are totally a thing in Italy. I wrote about it a bit here. But we’re not talking cross-trainers with shocks on them, we are talking about a very select array of brands and styles that must be worn with either tappered jogging pants that are just a little too short, or rolled up lightweight pants. This rule applies for both men and women. Would any of you like to see a list of the must-have sneakers on Italian feet these days? Let me know and I’ll whip something together!
You can see here that Stylish Italian Dad went for the New Balance sneaker look with socks and tappered, muted military jogging pants. He paired it all with a brown leather jacket and beanie and of course, massive sunglasses.
More Stylish Than The Moms
In North America the moment that a man invests time, energy and money into how he looks he’s labeled gay. In Italy he’s labeled Italian. The gay men look put together, the straight men look put together, the fat men look put together, the single men look put together, the married men look put together, the dad’s look EVEN more put together because now they have something to prove.
If you AREN’T put together you are the exception, not the rule and people wonder what’s wrong with you, most likely thinking you are a foreigner or tourist!
Aside from the many stylish moms I see pushing their strollers and wandering the streets I see an equal amount of stylish dads, so I may start to feature them more often because…..well….the majority of my readers (I’ve learned) are straight women who are moms and the odd gay male parent as well!
I find Italian dads are even more stylish than their female counterparts, because once you are a dad, you now have something to prove in Italy. You have to show that you are:
a) Still “cool”
b) Still desirable
c) You still have a rock and roll, aperitivo, social lifestyle….but with the addition of your equally stylish and cool kids
d) You still care about yourself enough to follow a few basic fashion trends and grooming regulations
You may remember when I photographed this dad outside of the Albinelli market around Christmas time? And I should totally do a whole style feature on my husband, who has a more curated closet than anyone I have ever met.
In fact, he just entered into his Spring shopping phase (thank God our accounts are separate) and has bought a designer linen scarf, designer boating shoes, and is now “researching” (which incidentally is what he calls browsing the net) for a selection of t-shirts. Actually for each individual item he buy he spends approximately 10x more than me, but he usually wears them non-stop for YEARS until they either get lost or wear out…..or are taken by me!
