Action! Back to the City: The Back-to-Work Wardrobe Inspired by the Venice Film Festival 2026

Francesca Delogu

Vibrant, hectic September: shooting resumes on our personal movie. It’s the opening clapperboard, the “month zero” of a new year packed with autumn projects, dreams, and challenges, but without any dress rehearsals. Back in the city, the diary explodes and email pings chime non-stop as we hit the ground running at full throttle.

After weeks in flip-flops and caftans, we find ourselves swaying disoriented in front of an alien wardrobe filled with hanging jackets, trousers, and heels that seem to belong to someone else entirely—someone infinitely more organised than us.

How to survive the whirlwind chaos of the back-to-work return? Let’s take a cue from the most eclectic muses: actresses, capable of stepping through a revolving door of roles while conveying total credibility thanks to their clothes, which decisively shape the success of their performance. High chameleon quotient, creativity, and a few daring touches are essential.

This is confirmed by the charismatic Jasmine Trinca, star of two films in competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, Succederà questa notte by Nanni Moretti and L’estranea by Paolo Strippoli:

“For an actor, costume is fundamental: it gives you posture, changes the way you move, and instantly locks you into character”. It’s the switch that triggers presence, completeness, and motivation.

With five Italian films vying for the Golden Lion, Made in Italy cinema this season serves as an endless visual reservoir: from the intellectual, androgynous elegance of Roman-born Trinca to the geometric tailoring of Anna Foglietta—making her directorial debut with Una storia—all the way to the warm, sensual tones of the captivating Vanessa Scalera, starring in Edoardo De Angelis' Il fuoco che ti porti dentro.

The Fitting That Changes Everything: Choosing an Empowering Look

Before hitting the set, an actress faces the fitting: a technical and emotional test where a dress is often examined under different lightings—natural, artificial, backlit—because a shade that convinces at noon can fall flat indoors in the evening. Master costume designers know this well: the Pantone of a fabric, its texture, or its cut can influence acting and make a gesture infinitely more powerful and expressive.

Daniela Ciancio, winner of two David di Donatello awards for Il resto di niente and La grande bellezza, shared that when a character is still hazy, the solution is to create a moodboard—a large tactile collage of cut-outs and pictures that will later become looks and narrative elements.

You then proceed by subtraction, discarding and starting afresh until that “wow” moment, when the perfect wardrobe for the performer finally comes together. It’s a key turning point: the film gains momentum precisely when the actor begins to move effortlessly in the clothes they wear.

Our September wardrobe should work in exactly the same way. The action plan? Build a mini visual script around an anchor piece, a reassuring silhouette, and a few striking accessories to define the scene—like a belt with a tactical phone pouch, an unusual scarf tied at the waist instead of the neck, or Hollywood-style mirror-effect sandals to feel like Marilyn at every step.

On set, there’s always someone photographing every outfit to guarantee continuity between scenes that might be shot days apart: why not steal the idea?

Borrowing this set discipline, we can snap our weekly looks and create a smartphone album, giving us tactical combinations ready every morning without having to overthink.

A jacket is always your primary ally: it reassures, structures, and instantly resets the body to city mode. Greta Scarano, host of the Festival's opening and closing ceremonies, chose jeans, a white T-shirt, and a blue blazer for her arrival by boat: three simple ingredients with an almost cinematic power to bring everything back into focus. From there, the fun begins.

A black cady waistcoat paired with knee-length wide trousers instantly shifts gears when styled with suede boots and a black leather “equestrian-style” crossbody bag: it’s the return to routine with a rock’n’roll edge.

When the diary demands an important meeting or you simply want to turn up the volume, you need a high-impact ensemble: a black and white silk twill single-breasted blazer featuring an almost painterly Pollock-esque print, paired with matching trousers, platinum sandals, and geometric jewellery. After all, the fitting also serves to figure out which version of ourselves we want to portray.

Colours, Silhouettes, and Details That Transform September Style

There is a subtle trick belonging to the costume designer's craft: the movement test. Actresses walk around in their dress before the clapperboard snaps, sit down, or lengthen their stride to see if a skirt holds the scene or if a heel heightens the character's gait.

Then there’s colour continuity across different moments of the story, creating coherence even as the scene, light, or character's mood changes. Terracotta brick, for example, shares the same enveloping warmth as the late afternoon sunlight lingering over late summer days.

It can be worn head-to-toe on a trouser suit with a blazer jacket—elevated to red-carpet status with black patent sandals and a gold necklace—or blended with white on a soft dress paired with camel sunglasses, hazelnut suede boots, and a crossbody bag.

Finally, for those Mondays when we still feel like we're on holiday and there’s no time to deliberate, reaching for a sand-coloured piece is a truly wise move. It acts like a blank canvas to write on, a springboard for fresh ideas that keeps us connected to the warmth of the beach while providing confidence, harmony, and a sense of protection.

In a flared stretch microtwill dress, a khaki silk scarf, and dark loafers, we can tackle anything with our heads held high: even imagining we're aboard a Venetian water taxi heading towards the Lido, wind in our rebellious hair, with endless adventurous stories yet to be written.