I thought Armani was the designer of the snappy carabinieri uniform, but then came across this in a website:

The Carabinieri are the men (and a few women, allowed in the corps since December, 2000) in dark blue, with the red stripe down the side of the trousers. Pretty sharp uniforms, wouldn’t you say? That’s because they’re designed by Valentino. Carabinieri squad cars are dark blue with red trim, and their horses are usually bay in color. The Polizia have blue jackets and bluish grey trousers with a fuchsia pinstripe running down the side. A fuchsia pinstripe? For a police uniform? In the 1980s Giorgio Armani thought it was a good idea. Polizia squad cars are light blue, dark blue, and white, and their horses are usually grey or white.

Does anyone know for certain if the designer was Valentino or Armani? Or neither????

I've often wondered about that funky purple stripe. Thanks for the background info.

It's a bit wider than a pinstripe though. Maybe a couple of centimeters wider.

I think it is saying Valentino designed the Carabinieri uniform and Armani the Vigili? Didn't Armani design the Alitalia uniform as well? Don't forget the motorway police now have 3 Lambo's as well, 2 in Rome and one in Bologna, I think! The UK motorway police have souped up Volvo's!!

Our local cops sport around in these:

The vigili here all have Alfa's! Powder blue one's to go with their uniforms of course !

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Originally posted by alyson:
I think it is saying Valentino designed the Carabinieri uniform and Armani the Vigili?

Yes, this was what surprised me! I had never heard that Valentino designed the cara uni's--only had heard that Armani had. I would not say the site I quoted from is 100% accurate...but it was the only one I could find from a google search that mentioned a designer's name at all.

quote:

Originally posted by alyson:
I think it is saying Valentino designed the Carabinieri uniform and Armani the Vigili?

It says Armani designed the Police. The Vigili have a different uniform with no legband whatsoever.

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Didn't Armani design the Alitalia uniform as well?

I have something in my mind that says Pininfarina or Giugiaro did. But I can't really say when that happened and if that's the current uniform.

Yeah, but do they get to flash the label?

When Ferrari starts designing the squad cars, watch out!

Now we know where our tax euros go...

As I said Lamborghini beat them to it!

We were in the Villa Borghese today and saw a polizia Smart car driving across the grass.

Seeing this, I realised that I've never seen a police officer here in Rome patrolling on foot except inside Termini (although they also have segways to scoot around Termini). Is patrolling on foot not an Italian thing? I guess they wouldn't want to ruin the look by wearing walking shoes with their snazzy uniforms?

Would YOU mess up those Ferragamo shoes?

We get a good mix of foot, scooter and car here, plus the occasional horseback officer. On the Ponte Vecchio there seems to be a competition among the female officers to see who can wear the most impractical shoes for walking on steep uneven cobbles - in black of course!!

I don't know what I love best about Italian police uniforms, the capes and swords of the mounted officers or the female vigili, I think, with their purses!

I wish I hadn't lost the pictures we took in Florence last year, I so wanted to show my clients how to spiff up their uniforms.

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Originally posted by filomena:
Would YOU mess up those Ferragamo shoes?

Didn't you hear about the police uniforms made in Romania that had to be sent back because it was spelt POLIZZIA?
Ahahah! Altro che Ferragamo!

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quote:

Didn't Armani design the Alitalia uniform as well?

I have something in my mind that says Pininfarina or Giugiaro did. But I can't really say when that happened and if that's the current uniform.

I thought I read somewhere that Trussardi designed the Alitalia uniform (and the interior of the planes).

Whatever way you look at it, the Italian polizia, carabinieri ecc have to be the best-dressed cops in the world...

These are sharp uniforms too. Not Italian, but the designer was

quote:

Originally posted by Breg:

I thought I read somewhere that Trussardi designed the Alitalia uniform (and the interior of the planes).

Whatever way you look at it, the Italian polizia, carabinieri ecc have to be the best-dressed cops in the world...

Oh, I don't know, I think the French and the Spanish look pretty snappy too!

Actually,

patrolling on foot is quite common for both Polizia and Carabinieri. There are special squads called "agenti di quartiere" (you recognize them for the different cap and the red band on the sweater for the Carabinieri) who patrol ONLY on foot. Bologna is full of Agenti di Quartiere, for exaple they always patrol Via Indipendenza. The Vigili are on foot by definition, sometimes riding a Vespa.

Come on Bill, you really don't know who was the desiger of the Guardie Svizzere's uniforms?

Ciao,
Chia

quote:

Come on Bill, you really don't know who was the desiger of the Guardie Svizzere's uniforms?

I've always heard it was Michelangelo. That's why I wrote "These are sharp uniforms too. Not Italian, but the designer was"

My husband and I talked about this once and he said that Armani designed the SUMMER uniform for the Carabinieri. I don't know if it is true, but it seems to be what he thinks...

Cyn