Spotted: cool Britannia alive and kicking

03 July 2012 By Luna Dizon

Jul

… in Italy!

Taking mod cool to another level

The Union flag - stylish in a t-shirt, bunting (okay, perhaps less so a dress - I'm thinking of Gerri Haliwell) and even a helmet.

Yes, I know it's a special year being a Jubilee year and then there are the Olympics (25 days away)! So of course there are going to be a lot more Union flags about - especially if it's in bunting form but what I didn't quite expect was to go to Italy and see so many young Italians wearing the Union flag as a fashion statement.

I'd started seeing stylised t-shirts (boys and girls) featuring the flag but they also tended to showcase some old British band. Mod and punk Britannia is certainly still cool in Italy - but there were a few that either just had the flag design and/or British landmarks too.

I thought perhaps the excitement from the Olympics really was spreading which I figured was cool though slightly strange in its manifestation. Whilst in Bologna and after the gig at Bolognetti Rocks, one of my new couchsurfing friends pointed out another person wearing a big London t-shirt to me, so I asked him why so many people had been wearing Brit related gear and he said it's just been fashionable for a while - nowt to do with 2012 being at all special really!