paninaro™

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 rapid hedonism of the 80s, fostered by Reaganomics, Thatcherism and deregulation liberism. 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.

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