Art or Fashion? - Rosso Forte Photo Scarves

I’ve been looking at the photo scarf collection from Rosso Forte recently and considering the blurred lines that sometimes occur between art and fashion.  In this case these are accessories that are easily wearable – choose your print (which is more about choose your colours) and you have something that will accessorise pretty well anything you like to put it with, particularly if it’s black.


Photo scarves are rare, and these from the Florentine textile house of Rosso Forte and designed by Franco Armilla are quite unique.  Each one measures 140cm x 140cm and crushes down into gossamer lightness.  They’re  hand screen printed and made out of cashmere soft modal – There are lots of explanations as to what modal is but basically it’s an excellently wearable man made fibre much less expensive than cashmere.

Colours are rich or muted, choose Lisboa, with dilapidated Florentine buildings, Cactus, in a wonderful shade of green, with cactus leaves, Mercado with a merchant and his richly coloured produce or Chicchi, covered in coffee beans and perfect for this season’s monochromes.

The question is – are these art or are they fashion?  I prefer to think of them as both.  Become a collector so that you have the colour range, wear them whenever you want, then bring them home and hang on your wall.  They’ll be talking points either way.  You'll find the best collection of Rosso Forte photo scarves in the UK at Lily Gardner.

Yesterday a last minute invitation from my son no less had me rushing to Covent Garden to see Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.  Filled with sublime music but a production that asked a lot of questions, not the least what kind of conceit was it to have younger and older versions of the main characters on stage at the same time.  It did become somewhat confusing, within an opera that needed no such additions.  And the singing was ‘ish, if you know what I mean.

It did, however, make me realise that every girl needs to have at least one ensemble in her wardrobe absolutely ready to go out in to anywhere, however glamorous.  With just ten minutes to get in my car and on the way to London I did ok, but not my best.  Better luck next time……..but it was all black, of course.