Here at the eCool Compound (which, lately, has been flitting through space and time) we always dig the ad campaigns mounted by Meltin’ Pot.  Last year we showed you their “I Have a Dream” campaign designed by ad guru Armando Testa.  This year, they’ve put Testa to work again and he’s designed three ads seemingly meant to assure us that the comfort and hot looks of Meltin’ Pot jeans can help solve some of the crises currently afflicting our world.

These ads are hanging all over Rome and they’re a bit difficult to work out as you whizz by on the bus or the tram (that’s probably one of the reasons we like them so much).  Above, in an a version labeled “001 Step to a Wonderful Economy,” a jeans-clad and crew-cut model is caressed by a couple of financiers sporting bustiers.  They’ve tucked cash into his waistband and they carry briefcases full of $100 dollar bills while other pig-headed bankers throw money to the wind against the backdrop of a multinational bank.

The economic crisis isn’t the only issue that Armando Testa and Meltin’ Pot take on, however.  In the ad shown above, “001 Step to Prodigious Healthcare,” the same model sports stylish jeans and strides through a super-clean station towards a bullet train.  He holds a stethoscope in one hand and approaches a trio of scantily-clad nurses eager to assist him in the healthcare tasks that await him.

The bluejean-ed doctor above must be pleased enough with his healthcare system, but he might be a bit jealous of his hoodie-wearing colleague (below) who’s found a job sure to keep him busy for a long time – deliving pizza to a building full of underwear models in “001 Step to an Exciting Job.”

We understand from all this that Meltin’ Pot and Armando Testa have a thing or two to say about the state in which the world finds itself.  Even more, however, we  understand that all our economic problems can be solved if we simply slip on a pair of Meltin’ Pot jeans, so we’re headed out the door and the down the Via del Corso to buy some right now.

Images published by Ads of the World.

Advertising Agency: Armando Testa, Turin, Italy
Executive Creative Director: Michele Mariani
Creative Director: Luca Cortesini
Art Director: Luca Cortesini, Laura Sironi
Copywriter: Maria Meioli
Photographer: Dimitri Daniloff
Published: September 2009

Here in the eCool Compound, we spend a lot of time thinking about shoes.  Thus, when a kind soul alerted us to the fact that Zazzle allows you to design and market your own personal Kids, we were intrigued.  Though a brief survey in the Compound suggests that no one on the eCool team has slipped a Ked on their foot at least since college, we navigated on over to Zazzle and begin to browse.

We were intrigued by the wackiness of the selection and began to fixate on certain themes near and dear to our eCool hearts.  It was a Dante kind-of day (the Inferno, not the Paradiso) and so we did a search for Dante shoes expecting that the search engine would turn up a great big zero.  Boy were we wrong!  There are lots of Dante shoes being designed these days and though we can’t possibly purport to understand what might make someone want to wear the poet on their foot, we do admit to developing a slightly perverse fascination with the idea.

Thus, today, we bring your our Dante shoe picks.  We don’t know what kind of shoes the poet preferred, but it’s easy enough to imagine that he would have enjoyed the opportunity to slide his tired feet into some sneakers during his long journey.  Perhaps he would have chosen a pair that featured his portrait, like those shown above, from Rick London’s collection of Love Quote shoes. They feature an image of Dante on the top panel and on each side panel is one of his most famous love quotes in Italian and English: Love that moves the sun and other stars.

Or, perhaps the poet would have shod his tender toes with the Dante’s Inferno Spookhouse model shown below (though the shoe comes in sizes suitable only for women and children).  The front panel has a photograph of a horrible monster taken by Liza Dey at the Dante’s Inferno Spookhouse at the Astroland Amuseument Park on Coney Island.

In celebration of the ongoing Fashion Week in Milan and in an effort to aid the earthquake-stricken region of Abruzzo, Italian fashion designers Donatella Versace, Alberta Ferretti, Anna Molinari for Blumarine, Veronica Etro, Silvia Venturini for Fendi, Consuelo Castiglioni for Marni, Angela Missoni, and Rossella Jardini for Moschino teamed up with Coca Cola to design fabulously fashionable bottles.

Though there are some great studio photos of these available, we’re more entertained by those that show over-sized versions of the bottles careening down the runway.  Those above are by Alberta Ferretti (left), Missoni (center), and Consuelo Castiglioni for Marni (right).

While the Ferretti, Missoni, and Marni bottles are nice, it’s those by Versace (above) and Moschino (below) that are really fab.  The pink convertible on the top of the Versace bottle (above) is really cute and anything that displays the witty Moschino aesthetic  – even girly-girl Coke bottles – makes us happy.

The new designs – like those of Anna Molinari for Blumarine (below, left) and  Veronica Etro (below, right) went on sale in Milan on 25 September.  Profits from sales will be used to help young women from the Abruzzo area find scholarships that will enable them to further their educations.

Tourists and residents of Rome alike were surprised and delighted yesterday morning as they witnessed  a street performance staged by an unknown group.  Four “nuns” dressed in shocking pink appeared in Piazza di Spagna and took a stroll through the city accompanied by two mounted “mounted police” likewise suited out in all pink uniforms.

The rose-colored group traveled from Piazza di Spagna to Via del Corso by way of Via Condotti – no doubt the employees and clients of the haute couture stores that line Via Condotti were pink with envy – and then continued down Via del Corso to Piazza del Popolo.

Who’s responsible for this delightfully colorful parade remains a mystery, though Rome’s daily newspaper La Repubblica posits that the event  may be a mini flashmob staging, a type of viral marketing, or very petite demonstration.

Photos from La Repubblica.

About a week or so ago, driven out of the Compound by heat and by a case of the stir-crazies, the eCool team did some prowling around the Oviesse store on Viale Trastevere.  On this particular field trip, team members were armed with cameras and were assigned the task of photographing their favorite wacky t-shirt.  As it turns out, that was the perfect time to hit the store: the back-to-school fashions were just in and there was an almost endless supply of fashion entertainment.

We’ve already shared one of our favorites with you: it was the “I Look Forward to Meeting You” shirt (available only in women’s sizes) that we blogged about last week.  Now, we offer up a few others–these mainly available for children (or small adults) only.

First up is the grey t-shirt seen above on the left.  It’s got a groovy all-caps font that’s outlined in brown and green and reads, “Indie Rockcity in the Middle of Nowhere.”  Oh, and there are images of cassette tapes as well.  We’ve spent some time trying to figure out exactly which city they might be describing.  We feel like we’ve been there, but no one on the eCool team can recall the name of that nowhere urban locale.

Things get a bit more academic with our next two selections.  Above, right, is a pink shirt (it comes in other colors and in sleeved and sleeveless versions) sporting a huge “D and P” in athletic lettering.   As “D and P” is not the most easily recognizable abbreviation, the designers also inscribed the full phrase to which those large letters refer: “Discipline and Perseverance.”  We love this shirt for several reasons: 1) “Discipline and Perseverance” is such an inspirational motto.  We think it would be great to walk around with that emblazoned on our chests.  Each time during the day that we felt discouraged or lazy, we could simply look in the mirror and be reminded of the virtues necessary for success.  Not every t-shirt does that kind of work for you.  2) It’s so very Foucault.  Every time we look at that shirt (and, believe me, we’ve made many trips back to Oviesse to admire that baby), we think “Discipline and Punish.”  We’re not sure that “Discipline and Perseverance” are so very far removed from “Discipline and Punish” and we wonder if the t-shirt designer was doing some heavy reading when he or she came up with this little gem.  (Oh yeah, by the way, we’re buying everyone on the eCool team a “D and P” shirt.  So, if you should see a gaggle of grown people squeezed into children’s t-shirts and walking about the streets of Rome, then you’ve just had an eCool sighting.)

The other shirt perfect for the child-size academic is seen above and on the right.  It’s a purple number with a San Francisco seal at the center, around which is written “Scrawling Poets.”  Oh man do we dig this!  We went so far as to purchase a couple of these, squeeze ourselves into them, and pay a visit to Keats’ and Shelley’s burials in the Protestant Cemetery to see if the earth would shake when they rolled over in the graves.

This is not just about informal day wear, however.  Oviesse’s back-to-school displays currently feature some outfits that are perfect for a pre-teen night out on the town.  Who wouldn’t be proud to see their 12-year-old daughter slip into a slinky yellow dress (above, left) with a sexy blond model on it, around which are emblazoned the words, “Old Flavor New Emotions” and “Hola Guys, Your Pin-Up Side”?  This is the stuff that parents HOPE their children will want to wear – we’re sure of it.

We’re in the midst of the biannual sales here in Rome and that means that in addition to marking down this year’s items, many stores have rummaged about in their warehouses,  hauled out those items that didn’t sell last year or the year before, and are offering them to consumers once again.

Though some of those who inhabit the eCool Compound shop more avidly than others, each and every one of us enjoys perusing the sale racks in search of perfectly appalling apparel.   And, though we’re all happy to experience the shock and awe provoked by fabrics so synthetic that they should never touch your body and the aesthetic of over-embellishment, it’s the abuse of English colloquialisms on the front of t-shirts that really makes us swoon with de-light!

Thus, on a recent tour of Oviesse, we were extremely excited to come up on this gem of a garment – a khaki-colored t-shirt with the words “I look forward to meeting you” emblazoned upon the front.  Supplies are limited, so if you can figure out where to where such an extroverted item of apparel, make your way to the Viale Trastevere Oviesse immediately!

It’s an exciting day here at the Compound!  Though we love togas and clerical robes as much as the next Rome-antic, we’ve just discovered the hottest Rome-inspired fashion to wind its way through the centuries in ages!

Nike, it seems, has cleverly created a gladiator sandal that comes complete with the trademark swoosh and non-slip soles (a girl needs to be steady on her feet in the arena)!

Made exclusively for Colette in Paris, these hot items sell for about 80 euro or $110 and come in black and white.

If you don’t hear from us for a while, it’s because we’ve just instituted a uniform policy and are in Paris spending our hard-earned sesterces as we fit out the eCool team.

Imagine our gladiation!  We who are about to buy salute you!

“I introduced Liz to beer and she introduced me to Bulgari.”  That’s a quote straight from the mouth of Richard Burton, describing his relationship with Liz Taylor and the time they spent together in Rome while making the blockbuster movie, Cleopatra, in the 1960s.  The cost of making Cleopatra nearly bankrupted Twentieth-Century Fox; Richard Burton’s wallet must have been lightened substantially too, judging from the display of Elizabeth Taylor’s private collection of jewels that’s part of the Bulgari exhibit at the Palazzo delle Esposizione titled, “Between Eternity and History.  125 Years of Italian Jewels.”

Celebrating the company’s 125th anniversary of activity in Rome and its rise to prominence as one of the leading jewelers of the world, the exhibit brings together nearly 500 objects created betwen 1884 and 2009.  The sparkling, glittering necklaces, bracelets, rings, tiaras, watches, cigarette cases, purses, and more are arranged in chronological and thematic sections, beginning with a display of silver artefacts manufactured by the founder of the firm, Sotirio Bulgari, a Greek silversmith who settled in Rome in 1881.

From there, one is treated to a Grand Tour of the Bulgari style, from diamond-set jewels in the Art Deco style to the emergence of the company’s own style in the 1960s to its innovative and daring designs of the 1980s and 1990s to the present day.  There are gorgeous and intricately-crafted objects and there are massive gems — a necklace created in 2009 is embellished (if one can use that word) with a 300 carat emerald.

It’s not just the jewels that are lovely.  This is one of the most finely mounted exhibits we’ve seen in Rome, with the exception only of the Valentino retrospective at the Ara Pacis Museum.  Fashion knows how to put on a pretty face in the Eternal City.  Visitors to the Bulgari exhibit make their way through darkened galleries, admiring the gorgeous jewels in illuminated cases, while watching clips from classic films in which divas like Anna Magnani, Ingrid Bergman, Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren, and Liz Taylor wear Bulgari accessories — often those same objects on display in the room.

Palazzo delle Esposizione is located on Via Nazionale in Rome and the Bulgari exhibit is on display until 13 September.  For more information, click here.

As readers know, we’ve been celebrating Rome’s birthday all week.  We started off with a fabulous chariot race in the Circus Maximus (no doubt just like those staged by Hadrian in AD 121 to celebrate the birthday of Rome), the projection of She-Wolves on Piazza del Campidoglio, and a re-enactment of the Foundation of Rome.

Today we take one last look at the birthday bash with a photo taken by Susan Sanders in the Circus Maximus.  As  the Gruppo Storico Romano prepared for a parade through the city (an event that was ultimately dampened by rain), Legionaries stood in formation and Susan managed to snap a photograph of a tattoo sported by one of the fearless warriors.  It reads “fulmine” which means “bolt of lightning” and to our minds is a reminder that Jupiter stands firmly behind Rome in all of its military efforts.

For more photos by Susan, visit her blog: Rome With A View.

A few weeks ago, we were hanging about the Ara Pacis Museum, admiring that lovely Altar of Peace created for the Roman Emperor Augustus in the first century BC.  Upon leaving, we browsed our way through the museum store and came upon a couple of Rome-inspired rings that set our hearts a’pounding.

The SPQR and She-Wolf rings are just a couple of the brilliant Rome-inspired products designed by Luca Lunghini and Monica Kobiakov, founders of Tre Tigri design, a new creative lab based in the Eternal City. Visit the Tre Tigri website to see other products, including flocked iron-on transfers that depict pasta shapes and iconic Roman street sights like the Fiat 500 and the nasoni (or little drinking fountains scattered throughout the city).

To our mind, these little plastic rings are the perfect souvenir for anyone visiting Rome, but they also make a fabulous little gift for anyone who has an undying love of the Eterna.  You can pick yours up at any of the following museums and bookstores:

• Musei Capitolini
• Ara Pacis
• Museo Carlo Bilotti
• MACRO
• Museo di Roma in Trastevere
• Mercati di Traiano
• Museo della Civiltà Romana
• Libreria Fahrenheit 451 (Campo dè Fiori)
• Libreria Odradek
• Libreria RGB 46 (Testaccio)
• Libreria Gocce d’Inchiostro (Trastevere)