Guide to the style of great Italian songwriters From Lucio Dalla and C.P. Company to Alan Sorrenti's disco aesthetic

Fashion and music have always traveled on parallel tracks, in a relationship of mutual influence. Underground aesthetic movements together with high fashion have often been able to inspire the aesthetics of artists who, in turn, create aesthetic trends that affect streetwear. If in the past it was the album covers or the rare TV appearances of the singers that inspired the clothing of their fans, today, in a much more liquid and voyeuristic way, social media has opened daily windows on the clothing of musicians. Some things, however, never change. If today the likes of Slowthai and Drake are trendsetters with their endorsements of C.P. Company and Stone Island, similarly, in the 80s, an eccentric and brilliant Bolognese singer-songwriter inaugurates this trend. In addition to Lucio Dalla, the entire Italian singer-songwriter scene of the 70s and 80s was able to grasp, both in the texts and in the aesthetics, the imaginary of Italy of the time, influencing and making itself influenced by it. 

Lucio Dalla & C.P. Company

Although we can try to analyze with greatness the different aesthetic currents within the Italian cantautorato, it should not be forgotten that, being a markedly pop genre, the looks adopted by its protagonists were the dominant ones, although for this reason no less hip, than the Italy of the time. Therefore, the most common representation of the singer-songwriter at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s – save unicum such as Battiato or Dalla – will always be close to the look of the average man or boy of the time: trousers on the paw, velvet jacket, knitwear and shirt, with a fit oscillating between slim and baggy depending on the year in question. On the other hand, the cantautorato has been a faithful and truthful mirror of an entire country, from texts to outfits.