Stile Transatlantico / Transatlantic Style
Stile Transatlantico / Transatlantic Style
Stile Transatlantico / Transatlantic Style
Stile Transatlantico / Transatlantic Style
Stile Transatlantico / Transatlantic Style

Stile Transatlantico / Transatlantic Style

Regular price $100.00 Sale price $79.95

Autographed by photographer, Michael Furman.

The first book by noted Italian car expert, columnist and television presenter Donald Osborne,TRANSATLANTIC STYLE: A Romance of Fins and Chrome brings to light the depth and range of the creative exchange in automotive design between Italy and America in the decade following the end of World War II. The parallel tracks of classic, understated Italian design and an exuberant American influence combine in a compelling story of brilliant visual art on four wheels. The societies, circumstances and personalities that shaped this dynamic interchange will come to vivid life in compelling text in English and Italian, significant historic

Transatlantic Style is 284 pages of hardbound homage to the improbable story that was the birth of post-war automotive design on both sides of the Atlantic. Improbable in that the beginning of the story took place in Italy, the country that had the distinct dishonor of being pummeled in the Second World War by the U.S., Great Britain and Germany, its erstwhile ally. Italy's great industrial centers in Turin and Milan were ruined. You could excuse them for thinking more about where to find a lump of coal or two to stay warm for a while rather than expending the energy to give birth to a post-war style movement that is still reverberating today, yet that's what the Italians did. To this day, few appreciate the enormity of the accomplishment.

Osborne's book takes a detailed look at the style trendsetters that are still not given sufficient credit outside the world of professional designers, like the Cisitalia 202 Gran Sport and the Lancia Aurelia B20. But the book really makes its mark, not by admiring these cars in a vacuum, but in closing the loop, showing how Americans took notice of what was going on in Italy and how subtle (and not so subtle) cross-pollination made style on both sides of the Atlantic richer. From production Pininfarina Nashes to the Hudson Italia and numerous concept cars and design studies, the book is utterly authoritative in its approach to the subject.

Osborne states his mission for the book, and for the museum exhibits he curated in Italy and California: to examine "this extraordinary moment in time, which saw the creation of some of the most important, dramatic and memorable automobiles in both America and Italy."

That examination includes words and photography. Words are presented in English and Italian (Osborne wrote in both languages, with his Italian edited by classic car writer Massimo Delbo). In addition to Osborne's words, there is a chapter by Don Williams of the Blackhawk and another by Corrado Lopresto, an architect and well-known Italian collector (and the only four-time winner at the Lake Como concours). The photography includes archival images as well as the contemporary work of famed automotive photographer Michael Furman.