Thursday 16 December 2010

Paninaro

Paninaro (Italian pronunciation: [paniˈnaːro]; feminine: Paninara; plural: Paninari; feminine plural: Paninare) is a name that was born behind a group of youngsters that used to meet at the bar Al Panino (At the Sandwich) in Via Agnello, in Milan, during the early 1980s. after that, they used to meet in Piazza San Babila where the "Burghy", an Italian fast food chain, just opened his first restaurant - later bought by Mc Donald's. The subculture was famous for its apolitical nature and its twin obsessions with fashion and Americana, contrasting sharply with the politically-aware generations of 1960s and 1970s.

The Paninaro scene developed in tandem with the vapid hedonism of the 80s, fostered by Reaganomics, Thatcherism and deregulation liberism and was eagerly embraced by the sons of well-to-do professionals who benefited from the widening gulf between high-income families and salaried workers.
It was also reinforced by the diffusion in Italy of Berlusconi's television channels, which transmitted messages of consumerism and fostered a fetishistic urge of self-affirmation through the acquisition of status symbols. Among these one station Italia 1 was explicitly aimed at a younger target, broadcasting then-popular US series, movies, cartoons and comedy shows which had unparalleled popularity in the 10-25 age range.
The Paninaro look's cornerstones were: Timberland boots or Vans deck shoes, Armani jeans rolled up to ankle height, El Charro belts with Texan or western-style big buckles, Best Company sweatshirts, bulky Moncler jackets and brightly colored Invicta rucksacks.
Other popular items were Ray-Ban sunglasses, Naj-Oleari underwear, Fiorucci and Moschino accessories, Controvento and CP Company clothing.

In their heyday, Paninari were lampooned in the Italia 1 comedy show Drive-in by Enzo Braschi, who played a character depicting the shallowness of the subculture and its unending vulnerability to newer trends and fads of the 1980s (New Romantic, Dark-Goth, Rambo-like, and so on...). Braschi later dropped the character after a season in which he appeared in military uniform relating his experiences in the then-compulsory service in the Italian Army (then a rite of passage signalling detachment from the teenage years).
The Paninaro movement was also diffused in some European countries, and is immortalized in the cult song "Paninaro" from 1986 by the Pet Shop Boys.

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