Nonsolomoda: fashion and lifestyle on TV

Glam. Fast. Appealing. Contemporary. Nonsolomoda is a little mystery of generalist TV.

Canale 5's magazine was born from an idea of Fabrizio Pasquero and aired for the first time on April 19, 1984, resisting for thirty years, a record only achieved by programs of much more classic style as Maurizio Costanzo show and Forum. 

No news, no entertainment. Always placed in the second part of the evening, usually on Sundays, the magazine immediately stands out for its innovative journalistic style that included fashion, architecture, art, design, travel, cinema, advertising, engines, new technologies and much more. Its hybrid nature was only one of the elements that made it the most "stylish" show produced by Italian TV, a reference point for every fashion victim who grew up between the '80s and '90s. The formula for its success? Pasquero revealed it:  

There are four ingredients: we were awarded as the best-written broadcast for TV, we are also the best set to music and best edited (we also take a day for a few minutes), and we have the unique voice of Davide Sassi, speaker of Nonsolomoda since the first episode.

The main feature of Nonsolomoda was the ability to propose images with a pressing, rhythmic narration, accompanied by refined and original music. In just a few seconds you went from a report on Chanel's apartment in Rue Cambon 31 to an exploration of the young talents of fashion, from a report on the latest model of a convertible car to the next vernissage.

The link between one video and the next was the voiceover of Daniele Sassi and, since 1995, a series of hosts, almost always former models, chosen from among the starters of the moment. Until the last edition of 2012, Roberta Capua, Afef, Vanessa Incontrada, Michelle Hunziker and Silvia Toffanin took turns leading the show for seven years, leaving the place in 2009 to Valeria Bilello and then to Samya Abbray. 

It wasn't just the short, interesting and dynamic reports, accompanied by a dry, almost telegraphic introduction, that made the show a cult. Nor the regular appointment with the Globish news, a brief look at the interesting facts of the week. Pasquero's project was at the edge also in terms of direction. The hyperkinetic editing, the twisted shots, the whirling scrolls and the zoomed images turned out to be an attractive and winning stylistic choice, which anticipated the model of the videoclip and was inspired by Target, a Mediaset show famous for its experimentation.

If for many Nonsolomoda was the ideal TV container for lovers of style in all its forms, many others blamed it for creating not lifestyle stories, but a simple sequence of editorial advertising. The most influential TV critic, Aldo Grasso, also supported this theory and wrote in a lucid review:

Nonsolomoda or "Solosponsor"[...] The services, refined and short, offer contributions in the most different fields, taking advantage of the language of video clips. The problem is another; it is that "Nonsolomoda" is editorial advertising. Behind every report, there is the sponsor.

Nonsolomoda's last season aired in 2012. Its place was taken by X-Style, a new monthly magazine about fashion, costume, trends and celebrities always on Canale 5.

Fun fact: even today fans of the show remember as one of their favourite elements of Nonsolomoda the choice of songs that accompanied the reports. That's why in November 1999 the compilation Nonsolomoda memory was released. The album produced by Billo Music contained the songs that have been the soundtrack in recent years to the transmission of Canale5 as Missing by Everything But The Girl, Born slippy by Underworld or Would you...? by Touch & Go.