The Whole Shebang: Pearl necklaces, guns and charleston at crack of Sunrise in a hot Milan day.

The other week, while my husband was on call at SPCA, I had the chance to take a look to this pile of second hand books down the lobby, while the night was still long and we had plenty of time to kill.

Let’s think about it, with 20 bucks you could allow a puppy some nice lunch as well as an interesting book for yourself: sounds like a deal to me!

My curiosity got tickled by these chronicles of fashion history throughout the red carpet-

Made for Each Other.

The first chapter focuses on the roaring 20’s, its heroines of silent movies as well as those movies who made, at that time, a huge difference.

One of them is certainly Sunrise by F.W. Murnau; uncompromising director, an internationally respected artist who would bring kudos to the academy, or, at least, someone thought so.

Full of chemistry, style, drama and comedy, Sunrise involves shadows, betrayals and revelations. Starring in this enchanting plot is the Academy winner Janet Gaynor, a 5 foot gaunt figure with Snow White eyes.

Sunrise is the synthesis of those days in the 20’s; the post World War 1, the blossoming of the jazz music, the moody and anti conformist flappers. I have seen this movie many years ago, in a hot and humid day in Milan. A lazy day, no plans at all, plenty of time to kill after my graduation, my bicycle carrying me around town, street after street.

A silent movie is shown these days in a tiny movie theatre nearby Cadorna, and the title attracted me so much (Sunrise, well, Aurora, was my nickname back in those days) that I decided to get in and treat myself .

The Roaring Twenties. Romantic, fantastic decade where opportunities were possible

and dreams were not just a though but could be seen as well.

Fashion was not only a mood, but a real status used by man and women to stay who they were and what they wanted.

Individuals and icons have inspired the rebellious attitudes and styles of millions: from Gloria Swanson and Louise Brooks, with her lovely black bob adopted by Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction, to Coco Chanel and her timeless creations. Elegant, versatile, knowing what women wanted, Chanel was the right person at the right place throughout the whole century, and in no time she turned to be a style icon “guru”.

Once the excess of materials, frilly laces and constraints of the past were just a mere memory, she introduced durable fabrics usually reserved for men's work clothes, beads and embroidery to decorate her clothes and other accessories fleshed out her "simple modern" look.

Her Garconne Look became a signature adopted by the flappers of half the world; loose waist line, beaded necklaces, heavy make up and halos of Chanel n. 5 became routine among those modern women in the UK and US.

The short hairstyles completed those new and rebellious outfits: from the “bob” to the “shingle” and “the dutch boy”, girls started cutting their hair to be different from their mothers and to state their own independence- Louise Books bobbed haircut and Clara Bow’s short wavy hair become the signature towards a masculine, thus uber feminine, look.

Cloche hats completed the outfits that moved on the steps of Charleston and Jazz- Juxtaposed to the flappers, the Gangsters style took over in pin striped suits and Fedora’ s hats; accessorized of a gorgeous car, as well as a shotgun and an equally gorgeous woman, this “dangerous look” became popular not only among the real gangsters but also among actors and celebrities. It all started with the passage of Alcohol Prohibition (Volstead Act) in 1919, and as a consequence, America became a powder keg of organized crime.

The men and women with the guts and means to break the law stood to gain and they also became the superstars of film and novels; Characters like F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, or James Cagney's Tom Powers in the great gangster movie The Public Enemy became the well-dressed icons of 1920's mobster culture.