Sunday, August 23

Italian lingerie: Victoria's Secret or Rosa the Riveter's Revenge?

I’ll never forget the first time I came to Italy as an adult. Long before Victoria let out her Secret, I’m afraid. I was absolutely shocked by the store windows, littered with the sexiest silk and lace I had never seen. In places that would make people in Peoria start picketing, people just passed them by, not even feigning indifference. In the place of the Popes, La Perla was a household name.

And so, I would like to know, at what point, exactly, do woman who start out their adult life (okay, pre-pubescent life) wearing things like that (see above), morph into Aunt Bea from Mayberry RFD donning hot fashions like this:

Travel to any small town, you’ll see young tarts looking like the Veline they aspire to become, and yet there is not a market stall in Italy that does not offer a huge assortment of these flowered dresses. There must be a market for them. In fact, wander around those same small towns, and you'll find desperate housewives in all their flowery splendor. So, what gives?

If anyone can offer an explanation, I’d be appreciative.

9 comments:

cuz liz said...

Aren't those the dresses worn while cleaning house?

Dave514 said...

Francesca:
These are the dresses before widow's black that then entitles you sit on a chair at the front entrance in stereotypical fashion rather like Mdme Defarge.

Anonymous said...

I don't have an answer but I do find your observation hysterical!

Dave514 said...

La vita nuova:
It's sort of a, "widow in training dress."

Davide

Irreverent Italy said...

Yeah, but at what age, precisely, do they go from housecleaning to full on day wear (the Italian equivalent of American sweatsuits or stretch leggings)?
Some friends think it's somewhere between your 30th year of shining the faucets and your husband's 30th affair...

Dave514 said...

Francesca:
La famme de trente ans....mais la famme de quatre ans...??? LOL!It is when the hourglass figure loses its elasticity that brings about the 30th affair.

Davide

cuz liz said...

Maybe the hubby has lost his hourglass figure and she wears the dress so he will please find somebody else! "I want to be alone!" (picture Greta Garbo)

chandi said...

Hey, not to be picky, but as a historian I teach about Rosie the Riveter and it is Rosie, not Rosa. Not that she was a real person...

Irreverent Italy said...

...Rosa is intentional. Here, she'd be Italian.