(By Elisa Cecchi).
For fashionistas watching the
64th edition of Italy's popular Sanremo music festival that
opened Tuesday night, the winners will be decided long before
awards are announced on Saturday.
This year, the competition is not only between the singers
- this time it is also about the designers who decked them out
as several leading Italian brand names got a dress or suit on a
music star.
Last year, hosts Fabio Fazio and Luciana Littizzetto, who
will also be running the show this time, managed to capture an
average of 11.9 million viewers throughout the marathon event,
never dropping below a 42% audience share and peaking at 66.6%.
It was the best result since 2001 and the growing appeal of
Sanremo can be noticed in the number of top-name Italian fashion
houses dressing participants this year, when the event has gone
head-to-head with Milan fall-winter 2014 fashion shows opening
Wednesday.
For the opening night of the festival, an institution for
music fans as well as star-gazers, French actress Laetitia Casta
wore a voluptuous haute couture creation designed by Italy's
Riccardo Tisci for French fashion house Givenchy to mark her
comeback as a guest star, after making an appearance in 1999.
Italian actresses Cristiana Capotondi and Violante Placido
have chosen Dolce&Gabbana and a number of other artists are
rumoured to be donning one of the designing duo's high-impact
numbers in the coming days.
Co-host Littizetto will be wearing Gucci throughout the
festival.
The popular comedian co-presenting the five-day fest
pitting 14 top artists against each other and eight upcoming
singers for best new talent, will be appearing in long gowns - a
tradition since the festival was launched in 1951.
She will also convey her comic jibes in stylish embroidered
short dresses, mainly in black, bedecked in crystals for added
glitz.
Fabio Fazio will be presenting the Italian pop bonanza in
suits designed by Italy's Ennio Capacasa for Costume National.
Florentine designer Roberto Cavalli will dress singers
Francesco Renga and Francesco Sarcina in his top line and Giusy
Ferreri in Just Cavalli.
A top contender for the Sanremo title this year, Noemi,
will hit the stage in Gattinoni couture whose creative director
Guillermo Mariotto is known for provocative creations
appreciated by pop stars like Madonna.
Fashion dean Giorgio Armani will take his sophistication to
Italy's popular entertainment event, dressing singers Filippo
Graziani and Marco Bocci in the Emporio line and actress and
presenter Giorgia Surina in his main line.
Polish actress Kasia Smutniak will pay homage to the
festival's guiding theme this year, beauty, with a black crepe
gown by fashion house Fendi while one of Italy's leading film
directors, Paolo Virzì, president of one of the juries, will
wear a suit by tailor Carlo Pignatelli.
And among other artists vying for their fashion moment at a
festival which has launched some of Italy's most popular singers
including Eros Ramazzotti, Laura Pausini and Elisa, Arisa will
wear Jil Sander along with another leading filmmaker, Sergio
Rubini.
Roman musician and song writer Riccardo Sinigallia will don
Massimo Rebecchi.
In the red-carpet fashion wars, Sanremo has gained new
momentum.
And as stalwarts of the Italian entertainment scene will be
making appearances and pop singers vie for an award over the
next few days, a successful fashion moment when an artist hits
the Sanremo stage will be a victory regardless of the
competition's outcome.
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