Designer Sergio Pininfarina -- RIP

Sergio Pininfarina leaning on a Ferrari
(photo from Road and Track)

Italian designer Sergio Pininfarina died earlier today at his home in Turin. His loss will be keenly felt at Ferrari, whose look and style Pininfarina indelibly shaped with his impeccable taste.

The online edition of Italy's leading newspaper, Corriere della Sera, features a rich photographic archive of the Torinese designer's work, celebrity associations, and family. (Click on "torna indietro" when you want to return to the photo collection's home page.) It's hard to imagine that, only fifteen years after the devastation of World War II, the Farina family (their original name), the Ferraris, and other enterprising Italians were bringing their creative, commercial vision into the world beyond the Alps. There was plenty of ambition to go around. They also possessed a self-assurance, somehow connected to the Western European experience at its best, that's very difficult for Americans to truly understand. I've often wondered if what perpetuated that self-confidence was an aristocratic strain in Italian society.

Pininfarina articulated this notion in a 1987 New York Times interview: "'You make a new car and you invite a dozen people, a dentist, a sportsman, a lawyer, a prostitute. And you say, do you like this, do you prefer that? I accept it, but I am not an enthusiast, and I'll tell you why,' Mr. Pininfarina told the Times. 'I am looking to the future, and these people are accustomed to the past.'"

The quote, and other details about Pininfarnina's life, are included in the designer's obit in today's Washington Post.