Stefan Campbell Presents: The Details-Oriented Dad

This is Franco Bastoni, a 22-year-old father of a 16-month-old baby boy. Franco is neither a rock star nor a fashion editor, but a factory production assistant for a leather goods company in the small town of San Mauro Pascoli outside of Bologna (one of my absolute favorite cities in Italy). I spotted him in Milan last month during Fashion Week wearing a look that was so head-to-toe that I wondered: “Where did he find the time?! And where did he find the FASHION?!”

He had on a giant fur hat that towered and puffed like an ‘80s-era hair-rocker’s wig (think Poison or Van Halen-style fabulousness) which he ordered online from estore.com; a snug Dsquared skunken navy peacoat (note the red threads holding the brown buttons and how they match the red cord on the hat) over a grey, sculpted pinstriped blazer (the hem perfectly peaking from the bottom of the peacoat), a precise, fitted black cardigan over a white starch shirt and with a black tie. And that’s just the top half. Below the waist, he found a pair of Dsquared shiny grey bondage trousers ( how could he make them seem so un-punk?) and even shinier Converse sneakers covered in iridescent sequins ( how did he make them seem so un-vulgar?). All this and I still have not mentioned the gargantuan brown sunglasses from Tom Ford (so Jane Fonda ) and the enormous alligator overnight-bag-as-day-bag from Emporio Armani (Giorgio, take note, this boy made it work!!). He looked like one of those genius mannequins from Fred Segal in Los Angeles that Brett Brooks creates. However, Franco has never left Italy to have seen them.

This was a lot of look from a small town Italian papa. But this was not just a coming-to-the-big-city outfit. This “look at me” style was him to the core (I heard stories about some of his get-ups at the factory shocking his fellow workers, or at least causing them to think… can you imagine?!). “I started getting into fashion when I was 17 years old,” he told me with the most earnest smile in his clear blue eyes. It may sound clichéd, but he used fashion to truly escape small town life. “I would draw something and my mother would make it. Now she tailors all my clothes.” Franco shops in Rimini, a town off the Adriatic Sea, three hours south of Milan. “My favorite designers are John Galliano and Dolce & Gabbana.” Not a surprise coming from this kid. “And my favorite magazines are Vogue and Vanity Fair -- both American and Italian”. He also likes ID. As for the web, Franco visits www.style.com and www.yoox.com religiously. “My dream is to become a fashion designer… I like very transgressive, chic style.” Spoken like a true Project Runway contender.

I like these New Dads who make an effort to look un-dad-like. You see them all over the East Village pushing Maclaren strollers in tight, eggplant-purple jeans with Cerulean blue socks (think Paul Smith), or tattooed creatures with aggressive piercings sporting a Baby Bjorn (think Trash and Vaudeville). I can’t wait to see the hand me downs that those kids will inherit from their dads’ closets. “My parents look at me like I’m crazy” Franco confessed in his charming broken English, “but I like to mix style.”