From June 3rd to 14th, 2015, Charles Gounod’s Faust was staged at the Teatro Regio in Turin, a lyrical drama organised by Stefano Poda. Who, for the costumes, drew his inspiration from clothing items by prominent stylists such as Dolce & Gabbana and Christian Dior. And on the catwalk of the former, Faust wore one of Bevilacqua’s vintage Italian fabrics.
Vintage Italian fabrics from fashion to theatre
The dinner jacket by Dolce & Gabbana made with Gotico velvet
Stefano Poda, though, didn’t dress his actors in designer clothing items, but rather in clothes deeply influenced by them. The reason for it is revealed by the play itself, because Faust is a scientist, a highbrow who sells his soul to the devil to get knowledge, power and youth. That is, to satisfy his vanity. And Poda decided to represent this ambition not only by means of an astonishing scenery – as, for example, the huge ring that took up the stage and moved together with the actors, to symbolise the covenant between mankind and God –, but through the costumes, as well.
He was, indeed, the author of scenes, choreography, lights, production and costumes, and for the last ones he chose garments by stylists known all over the world, so that the audience could get a glimpse of Faust’s desire for beauty and of the power he wants to emanate.
Poda himself said that his ambition was to “provide the audience with a lens to focus this masterpiece”. And the costumes he chose helped him reaching this aim.
One of the garments he drew inspiration from for Faust is a dinner jacket, designed by Dolce & Gabbana and made with Tessiture Bevilacqua’s Gotico velvet, in its black version. The two Italian stylists combined the modern cut of the jacket and its matching pieces of clothing with a velvet showing an antique pattern, as its name itself reveals. The result is a jacket with a vintage touch, but an absolutely modern charm.
It therefore perfectly suits a play like Faust, staged for the first time in 1859, but whose topics are still relevant today. Indeed, modern people still long for having something more, they still look for greatness, but this search sometimes leads to extreme solutions, just as it was the case with Faust.
