Parma's Mercanteinfiera reaches its 40th edition. This year focus on ties and video games

The appointment with Mercanteinfiera, the traditional kermesse of antiques, art design, modern antiques and collectibles, is back at the Parma Fairgrounds: from October 2 to 10, on an area of more than 40,000 square meters, four centuries of art history are displayed in the various stands of the fair alongside iconic objects of art design (Sottsass, Gio Ponti, Albini, to name a few), vintage fashion (Versace, Chanel, Hermès, LV, etc.), antique jewelry and watchmaking (Rolex, Vacheron Constantin, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe) and more. This year Mercanteinfiera is celebrating its 40th edition, with an increasingly diverse audience: in fact, next to enthusiasts, Mercanteinfiera is increasingly on the agendas of the curious, that is, those who discover it for the first time, but especially young people and the generation between 25 and 40 years old that has least attended the event in recent years.

A large fair that each year attracts about 50,000 visitors who visit the stands of about 1,000 exhibitors in addition to the collateral exhibitions that touch on fashion, archaeology, jewelry, photography, and costume phenomena. This year, the first side exhibition is all about the quintessential male accessory: the tie. A Man’s Backbone. History of the Tie, this is the title, exhibits about 40 ties as a tribute to a “cult” accessory whose usefulness has always been a source of discussion and controversy, but which has dominated the wardrobe undisturbed for centuries. Designs, sketches, jacquard paper masses, die cuts and of course ties of different styles and sizes for every occasion are at the heart of the collateral. The ties on display tell the story of taste from the 1920s, with the triumph of the stripe as a style element, to the 1990s. The exhibition, produced in collaboration with Paolo Aquilini, director of the Como Silk Museum, Fondazione Setificio, Associazione Allievi Setificio Como, Confartigianato Como, Associazione Italiana Disegnatori Tessili and Confindustria Como, also aims to enhance the historical vocation of Como’s manufacturing from craftsmanship to creativity concepts that, alongside that of sustainable fashion, are at the very basis of Como’s candidacy as a UNESCO Creative City. Nominations will be announced in early November 2021.

The controversial etymology of the word “tie” comes, according to many sources, from the word “Croatta,” referring to the Balkan troops hired during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), fought between Sweden and France. According to other versions, the wearing of neck ties was instead copied by Croatian troops from those following Emperor Ferdinand II of Germany. However, in the book De gli habiti antichi et moderni di diversi parti del mondo by Cesare Vecellio (1521-1601), cousin of the better-known painter Titian, the tie is already mentioned.In fact, Vecellio was the author of what can be considered the first treatise on the history of fashion: published in Venice in 1590, it illustrated the fashions of dress from every part of the then known world, from the most diverse social classes: popes, princes, peasants, soldiers, gentlewomen and prostitutes in the various historical eras up to the end of the 16th century. Before that, the French poet Eustache Deschamps in the fourteenth century (1346-1406) described in one of his ballads entitled Faite restraindre sa cravate the protagonist of Mercanteinfiera’s collateral exhibition. In the seventeenth century the fashion for collars exploded: mill-wheel lace ruffs stiffened by metal wires and starch from Flanders or Venice were exported to France to appease the dandies and gentry beyond the Alps. Under the reign of Louis XIV the rabat, a linen or lace collar divided into two parts that descended over the chest, a direct ancestor of the modern tie, took hold instead. Moreover, the Sun King was one of the most enthusiastic followers of the tie fashion. Not only did he contribute to its spread among the courts and aristocracies of half of Europe, but he instituted a rather singular office, that of the “tiemaker.” The latter had the task of handing his majesty each morning a tray laden with ties adorned with colorful ribbons and knotting the chosen one impeccably for the sovereign. Toward the end of the seventeenth century the first metamorphosis to the modern tie took place: in August 1692 against the French encampment in the village of Steinkerque in Holland, the officers did not have time to tie their scarves according to canonical rules and in their haste they fastened them around their necks: thus the Steinkerque-style tie was born. The bow tie also entered by force into the fashion of the eighteenth century: the pigtail of wigs was stopped by a ribbon knotted in a bow tie: if the flaps were particularly long the ends of the ribbon were led back to the neck where they were knotted in a bow tie...but that is another story. In the eighteenth century among Prussian troops it was customary to gird their necks with collars stiffened with whalebone splints or stiff cardboard to give the soldier a ’martial air: held at the nape of the neck by a string, it was destined to become in the nineteenth century the stock, that is, an artificial tie held by a stiff collar to which was sewn a knotted piece of cloth that was meant to give the feeling of an artfully made knot. Between the flamboyant clothing of the years of the French Revolution and the rigor imposed by Napoleon’s empire, the only outlet for male vanity was precisely the tie: it wrapped around the neck with two or more turns and became the essential complement to the very high collar that encircled the cheeks. In 1827, L’Art de se mettre la Cravatte was published in Paris, the first practical manual teaching how to do the art of tying a knot himself: the book was one of the first international best sellers. Published under pseudonyms in Italy, France and England, it was often rumored to be from the pen of Honoré de Balzac: a literary stratagem adopted to settle debts Balzac himself had contracted with shirt and tie makers. In the mid-19th century, the contemporary tie finally appears, called the régate since it was used aboard yachts or to watch regattas from the shore.

The second collateral exhibition is instead dedicated to video games: created in collaboration with the Videoludic Archive of the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna and the Bologna Nerd Association, it is entitled Back to the games. It is organized in four stations that cover the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, the four pivotal decades of videogame history. It was in fact starting in the 1970s that video games began to enter the homes of so many Italian families. The evolution of interactive entertainment has then gone hand in hand with that of technology and society: habits change, computers and consoles impose themselves in living rooms and bedrooms, furniture changes as well as gaming experiences, which are increasingly sophisticated. Each station will attempt to restore the atmosphere of the era through themed furniture and decorations, but above all through the gaming platforms belonging to the different generations that have followed over time.

Part of the video games on display will be usable in real time, while part will only be on display inside showcases. Accompanying the journey will be panels and explanatory captions that will attempt to restore anecdotes and historical details. In the 1970s one will be able to play with the famous Atari 2600, great classics such as Asteroids and Space Invaders. Behold the Pong console, the Intellivision and the Colecovision. In the 1980s it will be the NES and Commodore 64 that will keep the public company: with Super Mario Bros., Paperboy, Bubble Bobble, Prince of Persia and Last Ninja. A Master System, Amiga 500 and goodies such as Nintendo’s Power Glove and Game & Watch will be in the display cases. The 1990s saw the PlayStation “revolution” arrive, playable with Tekken, Ridge Racer and Crash Bandicoot. However, it is good not to forget the other great platforms of that decade, which will be on display: the Super Nintendo, the Mega Drive and the Game Boy and Game Gear handheld consoles. The journey ends in the 2000s, the scene of two different generations, both of which can be played at the fair: Xbox and PlayStation 3. Space for Halo and Ninja Gaiden, for Street Fighter IV and FIFA. However, these are also the years of the GameCube and Dreamcast, as well as Wii and, on the handheld front, the Nintendo DS and PSP: the platforms that will conclude this journey through time. One of the most unusual pieces on display is the Virtual Boy, Nintendo’s great flop, the least portable handheld console ever. It was conceived by Gunpei Yokoi, the daddy of the Game Boy, and launched in 1995. Those were the years of the run-up to virtual reality, and Nintendo thought of throwing itself into the fray with a stereoscopic console. A year later the Virtual Boy had already disappeared from the shelves (and never arrived in Europe). There were just over twenty games released for this platform.

Mercanteinfiera opens daily from October 2 to 10, 2021 at Fiere di Parma, viale delle esposizioni 393/a, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Price: euro 10 full, euro 8 reduced architects. For all information you can visit the Mercanteinfiera website.

Parma's Mercanteinfiera reaches its 40th edition. This year focus on ties and video games

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