Paninaro
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paninaro (plural: Paninari) is a subculture that was born in Milan, Italy during the early 1980s at a fast food restaurant called Al Panino (in English: At the Sandwich). The subculture was famous for its apolitical nature and its twin obsessions with fashion and Americana, contrasting sharply with the hyper-politicized 1970s. The Paninaro scene developed in tandem with the vapid hedonism of the 80s, fostered by Reaganomics, Thatcherism and deregulation liberalism. It was also reinforced by the diffusion in Italy of privately-owned television channels, which transmitted messages of consumerism and fostered a fetishistic urge of self-affirmation through the acquisition of status symbols.
The typical Paninaro look might be Timberland boots or deck shoes, El Charro jeans rolled up to ankle height, belts with Texan or western-style big buckles, Best Company sweatshirts, bulky Dolomite or Moncler jackets and brightly colored rucksacks.
In their heyday, Paninari were lampooned in the Italia 1 comedy show Drive-in by Enzo Braschi, who played a character depicting the shallowness of the subculture and its unending vulnerability to newer trends and fads of the 1980s (New Romantic, Dark-Goth, Rambo-like, and so on...). Braschi later dropped the character after a season in which he appeared in military uniform relating his experiences in the then-compulsory service in the Italian Army (then a rite of passage signaling detachment from the teenage years).
The Paninaro movement was also diffused in some European countries, and is immortalized in the cult song Paninaro from 1986 by the Pet Shop Boys.
