If you are in Rome and want to see the latest in fashion, or alla moda, all you need to do is order a caffe at the most fashionable piazza in the city, Piazza San Lorenzo in Lucina.  Centered around the church of San Lorenzo, the piazza is a peaceful refuge from the hustle and bustle just around the corner on Via del Corso, where Romans and tourists, two fisted with shopping bags, spill from the narrow sidewalk into the street making it impossible for vehicles to drive down this main artery.  While the shops on Via del Corso are not high end, you will find the toniest of shops right off of it in the Campo Marzodistrict.  Walking these winding streets will reveal the latest in clothing and home fashion.   In a country where men’s clothing stores outnumber women’s about four-to-one, it is not surprising how well-dressed Roman men are, outdoing their female counterparts in both style and good taste.

Enter the Piazza San Lorenzo and head for Ciampini an oasis for people watching which is especially best on weekday mornings when Parliament is in ion. You will no doubt catch the members having a coffee meeting before going to their posts in Piazza Montecitorio and Piazza Colonna a bit down the road. Here the elegance of the suit is alive and well, with the addition of trendy sunglasses and the latest brightly colored dress shirt making each one look like a film star from Rome’s Golden Age of cinema.

(Tip: Speaking of film, just around the corner is the Nuovo Olympia cinema which often shows films in English, subtitled in Italian).

A few steps away is David Cenci, the largest store in the Campo Marzo area — a mini-department store of men’s clothing. The windows show the latest styles — tastefully coordinated ensembles with prices written on small placards. Step inside and you are instantly greeted by salesmen dressed in the most impeccably tailored suits looking like they just came off the catwalk. Looking for a gift? How about a tie in the latest color and pattern? Guaranteed you won’t see it in the U.S. for another 2-3 years. The selection is the best in Rome with Italian labels that you won’t find anywhere else (much more of a statement than a big designer name that you can find anywhere in the world). While most of the store is devoted to men’s clothing, there is a small women’s section, an afterthought, upstairs (I do love the hand-crafted raffia handbags here).

So what is the trend of the moment? For men, summer clothing is filled with marine blue and yellow. Yes, yellow! Leave it to Italian men to be so daring. Combinations show unstructured jackets in sea blue, white and yellow shirts, yellow ties, blue, gold or yellow pants, and window-pane shirts in the same blues, white and yellow.

Other trendy colors for men: red, white and blue which you will see in every store window. Solid red or blue pants and jackets, white shirts with contrasting blue or red collars, and fine window pane linen jackets in the same colors. Also silver gray is hot — jackets combined with white, pinks, blues and reds.

For women, yellow and blue dominate as well. Blues range from deep to medium to silvery. Flowing yellow and cream tops in gossamer silks — waist length in the front and longer in the back. And everything is belted with thin leather belts, wrapped around the waist two or three times, knotted and hanging low. Also big is orange, pink and violet. And always in style for summer — white on white — in the sheerest cottons and linen — or the-ever-so-chic white with cream.

Shoes seem to cross gender lines with both male and females wearing suede bucks in light colors of white, beige and silver blue, and espadrilles in traditional colors of navy, black, red, and tan (women’s in both flats and wedges). And…the newest Superga sneaker is yellow!

Fall Color Preview: Everything is coming up Burgundy!