On the occasion of Milan Fashion Week 2023, Galleria&Friends, in collaboration with the prestigious historical workshop Cilento 1780, presented “The Secrets of Neapolitan Elegance,” a theatricalized meeting – conceived by Elisabetta Invernici, directed by Alberto Oliva – that restores the colors and scents of nineteenth-century Neapolitan style through the dialogue between Oscar Wilde – the most famous dandy in the history of literature – and Matilde Serao – writer and journalist, author of the investigation “The Belly of Naples.”

The evening was enlivened by actress Silvana Filippelli, as Matilde Serao, a writer and journalist for the Mattino di Napoli, who in 1897 covered the arrival in town of the world’s most famous dandy, aesthete Oscar Wilde, played by actor Gianfilippo Falsina Lamberti.

The reading of her article, published on October 7, 1897 in Il Mattino, will be the pretext for engaging in a dialogue between the writer and the poet, and reliving the atmosphere of late 19th century Naples so well described in Matilde Serao’s masterpiece “Il ventre di Napoli.”

The meeting was held at the new Milanese store of the Cilento 1780 brand, the only boutique besides the one in Via Chiaia in Naples, a historic place reborn in the footsteps of the Antica Spezieria present in the heart of Brera since 1591 where owner Ugo Cilento welcomed the audience.