Sicily/Wear It!
From Head to Hand

Where are the women who "wear it?" Sicilian women are hard to find. Especially outside of the major cities like Palermo. Women seem to be cloistered away at home. Raising the children, doing the housework & defining the art of Sicilian cooking.
The men, however, are everywhere. Stylish businessmen, handsome uniformed police & groups of weathered old men, who gather in town squares and cafes, dressed in their finest, though crumpled, suits and hats.

Sicilian fashion is not as exciting as what you find in Northern Italy. In general, Northern Italians are more sophisticated, urban-dressers. Southern Italians are more casual, country folk. If you see very savvy fashion in Sicily, chances are it's from a northern style mecca, like Milan, that has come south for the well-heeled & tourists.

But we were able to find a bit of true Sicilian fashion style over lunch one day. A handsome young man wearing a bright yellow cap sat across from us at a café. The type of skull cap he wore made him look like a professional bicyclist. Fishermen, laborers & vendors seem to wear them the most. You'll find baskets of them in many shops. They are small & very stretchy. Crocheted in cotton in a vast array of designs & colors. They look like baby hats unless you know what they are.

After seeing our yellow-capped young man on Lipari (the capital of the Aeolian Islands), we found other men who sported the look. Many match the color of their caps to their clothing. Sicilian women apparently have time to crochet for the men, too...

We moved on from typical headwear to heavenly handbags. In beautiful Taormina (which should be on everyone's list of places to visit in Sicily) the shopping is divine. Especially on the side streets, away from the tourist shops full of garish painted pottery.

Jewelry (gold is an especially good value in Sicily), lingerie, gourmet food shops & some of the biggest names in Italian fashion, like Versace and Gucci. But it was 'Desmo' that got our attention. Walking by a small handbag boutique called La Bagagerie (on Via di Giovanni), we stopped dead in our tracks at the window display. Beaded evening bags, luxurious leather totes and can you believe it....maribou, darling!

The 'Desmo' feather handbags were too fabulous to pass up. It was hard to choose which one, though, since they come in several vibrant colors. At last year's film festival in town, Tom Cruise & his entourage were also taken with this 'Desmo' bag, called the "Borsa." Good 'ol Tom purchased one in every color for the ladies that were with him.

The small tote has a velvet handle, silk tie top and silk & velvet hand-dyed flowers to complement the look. But it's definitely the maribou feathers that grab you. Made in a very limited production, the handbag costs about $175.000 USD. Contact Giovanni Russo at conforticinzia@tiscalinet.it for more information. Or check out www.desmo.it, their headquarters located in Florence.