Every October, Rome rolls out one of the largest red carpets in the world, and this week it is out again. In most cities that would be the end of the story: stars on the carpet, the rest of us behind a barrier, watching on a phone.
Rome does it a little differently, and the difference is hidden in a single word on the poster. Once you notice it, you start to see it in what the women in the crowd are wearing.
A party, not a competition
The event opened on Tuesday, October 13th, and runs through Sunday the 25th. It is the 21st edition, and its official name is the Festa del Cinema di Roma. Not festival. Festa — the word Italians use for a party, a feast day, a celebration you are invited to.
That choice was made on purpose, and then made again. When the mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, founded it in 2006, it was a festa. For several years the name drifted to the more official-sounding festival. In 2015, for its tenth edition, Rome changed it back.
The organizers explain the reasoning in plain terms. The public, they write, plays the part of the protagonist. Most of the program is built for ordinary ticket buyers, prices are kept deliberately low, many events are free, and the box office stays open for the whole run. In several sections the audience votes on the films itself, and those people's choice awards are handed out alongside the jury's. In 2024, more than 110,000 people came.
Venice, in early September, is where Italy puts on its evening gowns for the cameras. Rome, six weeks later, is where it goes to the movies.
The carpet everyone walks past
The heart of it all is the Auditorium Parco della Musica, the concert complex Renzo Piano designed in the north of the city, where the long red carpet runs past the concert halls and the crowd gathers along the barriers to watch.
And this is the part I love. Many of the people standing there have tickets of their own. After the premiere they will walk into a screening too, maybe at five o'clock, maybe at nine, straight from work or from lunch with a friend. There is no black-tie rule for them and no time to go home and change.
Look at photographs of that crowd, year after year, and a pattern appears. Nobody arrives in a gown. Almost nobody arrives in jeans and a sweatshirt either. What you see instead is a woman in her ordinary clothes who has added exactly one thing that belongs to the evening.
One piece that catches the light
That one thing is usually shine. A sequin skirt with a plain blouse. A sequin top with good trousers. Something that looks right under the lights of a red carpet and still looks right on a tram at six o'clock, because the rest of the outfit is calm.
It is a very Roman solution, and a very useful one for the rest of us. We tend to save sequins for New Year's Eve and a dress that lives in a garment bag the other 364 days. The Roman approach turns the same sparkle into something you can wear to a movie on a Saturday.
A black sequin fringe skirt is how I would try it. Ours is made in Italy, covered in small elongated sequins that hang like fringe and move when you walk. In our shoot it is worn with a sheer white organza blouse and sunglasses, which is about as far from a gala as sequins get. The matching sequin top, sold separately, works the same way over dark trousers or jeans.
The rule is simple: one piece that sparkles, everything else quiet. No second statement, no heavy jewelry, and a shoe you could stand in along a barrier for an hour.
That is how a city dresses when the party is for everyone. You do not need an invitation to try it, and you do not need Rome. A Saturday matinee in Sarasota will do. The sequin skirt is here, and the tops to wear with it are in the tops.
Facts: Fondazione Cinema per Roma; Festa del Cinema di Roma.
She travels to Italy each season to hand-select the boutique's collection.
Keep reading
For Eleven Days, Venice Dresses for the Evening
Why Italians Dress Up Just to Take a Walk
