Is Italy a country for old people?

In the past few years, Fashion System has been trying to rejuvenate – successfully – his army of soldiers in furry slippers. Just look at the frantic change of creative directors at the helm of the major fashion houses, in favour of cooler and fresher names. But this is another story that maybe I will tell you another day. All we have to know now is that Fashion is getting younger. 

This phenomenon doesn't seem to happen into the publishing sector. Actually not, I must correct myself: this doesn't seem to happen into the Italian publishing sector. 

I am not the “foreigners are cool, Italy sucks” kind, I’m far from this attitude, but we must face reality and accept it as it is: we are old.

I'm not just saying it, facts prove it. If we only take into account national large-scale distribution magazines, we can see that the major Italian editors are not younger than forty-five years old, unlike in most foreign magazines the team age threshold is falling significantly.

Recently, Italy is trying to follow the foreign trend with good results, but sadly this is often limited to external co-operation and interns, while very important positions are still in the hands of over 45 élite.

Why? Firstly, Italian large-scale publishing is suffering from a shortage of youthful editorial line magazines with irreverent and – why not? – courageous style. It's hard to find a i-D-like magazine or a Made in Milan Dazed & Confused-like publication in our kiosks. In this regard, in my opinion, Italian magazines such as Muse and Flair are remarkable, maybe the only ones that can claim an international aestetic and conceptual language.

The second reason is the slowness of Italian publishing. Newest working guys's dues are indefinitely growing and generational change is a mirage. Big-shot names don't give way to fresh blood willingly, causing, in my opinion, a general ageing of fashion journalism in Italy. 

Anyway, as most happy ending stories teach us, into our home publishing too there are characters who fight from the bottom to affirm their voice and their image against the old witch that Italy could be. Magazines like Hunter Fashion Magazine, Alla Carta, Rivista Studio and AuRevoir Magazine are just a few very good examples of alternative and, all above, fresh publishing that is, could be and must be in Italy.