OveThe book examines a new breed of Italian "gentle men" for whom kindness and sensitivity are deeply held values that, far from threatening their masculinity, serve as a necessary counterweight to youthful drive and ambition. It looks at the social and psychological as well as the aesthetic aspects of this emerging "gentleness" to discover how it goes beyond mere gentility to encompass timeless qualities of respect and elegance together with contemporary attitudes to life, work and the family. With characteristic poise and understatement these thirty-somethings all exhibit an honest desire for emotional maturity that presents a refreshing contrast to the proliferation of celebrity and tasteless exhibitionism that are so commonly held up today as models of success.
Our gentlemen all share a natural elegance, they are neither swaggering dandies nor ruthless social climbers. They view their success as a private matter which reflects their attitude to life as a whole, in which gentleness plays an absolutely fundamental role. In this culture of being as opposed to appearing, they are probably the groundbreakers and it is to be hoped they find many followers. This book takes a sociological approach to gentleness and fills out the picture of the new "gentle man" with much evidence of their dress sense. It is not a book about fashion, it is about a way of living. And it is about real lives: the clothes they wear in the photographs are from their own wardrobe. They speak softly and straightforwardly about the things that are dear to them, the extended family and their closest ties of affection, their work, their homes, their elders and their children, passions, travels, fears and pleasures. But also about father's old jacket, and grandfather's braces.
Fourteen young men "of breeding" who work in widely varying fields, who know each other and frequent the same places, and who in many ways resemble each other, even in their dress. They share a disdain for modishness and the big fashion names, preferring a treasured hand-me-down or an anonymous but beautifully crafted made-to-measure to expensive designer labels. All have inherited from their grandfathers their basic values of solidity, integrity, culture and poise, and with them a grace and elegance of character.
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