Paninaro

Paninaro was a social phenomenon in Northern Italy during the 1980s that was characterized by an obsession with designer clothing and adherence to a lifestyle based on luxury consumption. It began in the Milanese metropolitan area, later spreading throughout continental Italy. The phenomenon led to the creation of magazines, films and television programs. History In the early 1980s the areas of Milan were frequented by groups of young people with their own rules and styles such as metalheads or goths. Within this context, a group was established, which consisted predominantly of adolescents, who met at the local area of Piazza San Babila. This group defined its own vocabulary based on the ostentation of very expensive designer garments. At the same time the fashion industry, having identified the new style, began to provide conforming garments and accessories at affordable prices. This phenomenon evolved initially in the sandwich bars and fast food restaurants of the center of Milan, then having spread throughout Italy, also spread abroad. The meeting places, sandwich shops and fast food restaurants, where quick meals could be eaten, therefore also determined their name (panino in Italian means sandwich). The term derives, more specifically, from a bar in Milan, the Al panino bar, the usual haunt of the first group of paninari, a group of boys who had coded their own jargon and their own clothing, based fundamentally on certain items of clothing and accessories of famous Italian or foreign brands. The phenomenon was born in the early eighties as an expression of the wave of reflux and disengagement that followed the turbulent and politicized previous decade. It rejected every form of social commitment and focussed on enjoying life without too many worries, conforming to the models of the American cinema of the period and to the advice of the commercials. advertising broadcast by commercial television stations in accordance with Reagan's hedonism. The new values that are affirmed are: "to function, to show that you are worthy, have a perfect body and image, be fashionable, make a career".