EDITED BY
MarIo Lupano
aLEssanDra VaccarI
FashIon aT ThE TIME oF FascIsM
ITaLIan MoDErnIsT LIFEsTYLE
1922
1943
edited by Mario Lupano aLessandra Vaccari
The first visual essay on fashion and modernism in
fascist Italy. Drawn up in a fascinating and original
manner the book investigates the active role of
fashion in the affirmation of a modern aesthetic,
between processes of spreading international
culture and the visions induced by the regime.
The result of wide ranging research, Fashion at the
Time of Fascism explores and compares a broad
variety of Italian sources: women’s magazines,
fashion magazines, cinema and society life, exhibition and commercial catalogues, books and
magazines on dressmaking techniques, design
and architecture, plus publications by businesses
and government departments.
The book is a close-knit montage of images and
texts that follow the rhythms and rituals of lifestyles
in the modern Italian day, developed around four
key concepts: Measurement, Model, Mark and
Parade. From obsession with the exact measurement of bodies, garments and time to the creation of icons and models of modernity; from the
construction of a national fashion system to the
spectacular dimension of fashion shows and fascist rituals. An outline of the key figures and the
fundamental steps of Italian fashion from the 1920s
to the early 1940s, the crucial themes of modernism and the relationship between glamour and
the fascist regime’s choreographies.
Fashion at the Time of Fascism includes a selection of texts by authors of the day and a wide variety of original critical contributions dealing with
and contextualising the course of iconographic
development.
EDITED BY
Contributors: D a n I E L a
BaroncInI, Marco
BErTozzI, VITTorIa caTErIna caraTozzoLo,
aLEssanDra cITTI, ELDa DanEsE, rIccarDo
DIrInDIn, BonIzza GIorDanI araGno, soFIa
GnoLI, aLEssanDro GorI, IrEnE GuzMan,
anTonELLa huBEr, aLEssanDra MarIanI,
GaBrIELE MonTI, EnrIca MorInI, FEDErIca
MuzzarELLI, IVan parIs, EuGEnIa pauLIcELLI,
ELEna pIrazzoLI, ELIsa TosI BranDI
400 pages and 1500 illustrations
MarIo Lupano is Professor at the Faculty of Arts
and Design, Iuav University of Venice, where he
teaches Criticism and History of Design.
aLEssanDra VaccarI is Researcher at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Bologna University,
where she teaches Fashion Culture and Design.
| E 50,00 | $ 60,00 |
MarIo Lupano
aLEssanDra VaccarI
EDITED BY
MARIO LUPANO
ALESSANDRA VACCARI
FASHION AT THE TIME OF FASCISM
ITALIAN MODERNIST LIFESTYLE 1922-1943
edited by M A R I O L U P A N O and A L E S S A N D R A V A C C A R I
texts
DANIELA BARONCINI, MARCO BERTOZZI,
VITTORIA C. CARATOZZOLO, ELDA DANESE,
RICCARDO DIRINDIN, BONIZZA GIORDANI ARAGNO,
SOFIA GNOLI, IRENE GUZMAN, ANTONELLA HUBER,
MARIO LUPANO, GABRIELE MONTI, ENRICA MORINI,
FEDERICA MUZZARELLI, IVAN PARIS,
EUGENIA PAULICELLI, ELENA PIRAZZOLI,
ELISA TOSI BRANDI, ALESSANDRA VACCARI
captions
GABRIELE MONTI
visual design
ALESSANDRO GORI.Laboratorium
research
CLARA CARPANINI, IRENE GUZMAN, GABRIELE MONTI
with VANESSA BUJAK, ANNALISA GNESINI,
LUANA LABRIOLA, GIUSI LOMBARDI, SILVIA MELATTI,
MARCO PECORARI, SILVIA ZOTTI
iconographic archive
VALENTINA MENEGHELLO
bibliography of periodicals
ALESSANDRA CITTI, ALESSANDRA MARIANI
bibliography and index of names
ELENA PIRAZZOLI
translations
DAVID SMITH
with EMILY LIGNITI, ELISABETTA ZONI
editorial coordination
ENRICO COSTANZA
ELEONORA PASQUI
technical coordination
LORENZO TUGNOLI
with the support of
UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA
Faculty of Arts and Humanities, 2nd Level Degree Course in Fashion Studies
Rimini Campus Library
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vice chairman: Sandro Di Castro
vice chairman: Valeria Mangani
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Marina Letta, Roberto Polidori, Guido Razzano,
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ISBN 978-88-6208-061-3
© Damiani 2009
© the authors for their texts
Printed in July 2009 by Grafiche Damiani, Bologna
front cover – Grazia, XV, n. 78 (2 May)
1940
back cover – La rivista illustrata del Popolo d’Italia, XVIII, n. 1 (January) 1940
initial endpapers – Mannequin. Il Rubicone, IV, n. 4 (April) 1935; Design Giovanni T. Fercioni. Photo Crimella. Moda,
XVII, n. 6 (June) 1937
final endpapers – Benito Mussolini. La
rivista illustrata del Popolo d’Italia, XVI,
n. 6 (June) 1938; Photo Lucio Ridenti.
Natura, X, (July-August) 1937
p. 1 – Design Anita Stoianovic. Photo
Lucio Ridenti. La rivista illustrata del
Popolo d’Italia, XVI, n. 5 (May) 1938
p. 2 – Design Sandro Radice. Photo Crimella. Moda, XVII, n. 3 (March) 1936
p. 3 – Design Anita Stoianovic. Photo
Lucio Ridenti. Moda, XVIII, n. 1 (January) 1938
p. 399 – Design Carlo Ferrario. Photo
Badodi. Moda, XVII, n. 5 (May) 1936.
p. 400 – Swimming costume Eneco. Per
voi signora, IV, n. 39 (April) 1935
THE EDITORS AND THE PUBLISHER WISH TO THANK
A.N.G.E.L.O. VINTAGE PALACE, LUGO
Angelo Caroli
Gian Paolo Chiari
ARCHIVIO DI STATO, ROMA Margherita Martelli
ARCHIVIO FOTOGRAFICO, CINETECA DI BOLOGNA Rosaria Gioia, Alessandra Bani
ARCHIVIO LA ROSA S.P.A., MILANO Gigi Rigamonti
ARCHIVIO PIERO BOTTONI, POLITECNICO DI MILANO Giancarlo Consonni, Graziella Tonon
ARCHIVIO ROBERTO PAPINI, BIBLIOTECA DI SCIENZE TECNOLOGICHE, UNIVERSITÀ DI FIRENZE Gianna Frosali
ARCHIVIO TESSILE, CASTELLO SFORZESCO, MILANO Alessia Schiavi
BIBLIOTECA CIVICA CENTRALE DI TORINO Davide Monge
BIBLIOTECA CIVICA DI VERONA, Laura Minelle
BIBLIOTECA COMUNALE SORMANI, MILANO Grazia L. Olcelli
ARADA BOOKS, ADDIS ABABA
BIBLIOTECA DEL DIPARTIMENTO DEI BENI CULTURALI E DELLO SPETTACOLO, UNIVERSITÀ DI PARMA
BIBLIOTECA DEL POLO SCIENTIFICO DIDATTICO DI RIMINI, UNIVERSITÀ DI BOLOGNA
Alessandra Citti, Alessandra Mariani
BIBLIOTECA DELL’ACCADEMIA DI COSTUME E MODA, ROMA
BIBLIOTECA DELL’ISTITUTO STORICO PARRI EMILIA-ROMAGNA, BOLOGNA
BIBLIOTECA DELL’UNIVERSITÀ IULM, MILANO
Enrico Cavalieri
Emanuela Costanzo
BIBLIOTECA DELLA FACOLTÀ DI CHIMICA INDUSTRIALE, UNIVERSITÀ DI BOLOGNA
Laura Peperoni
BIBLIOTECA DELLA FONDAZIONE ISTITUTO GRAMSCI EMILIA-ROMAGNA, BOLOGNA
BIBLIOTECA DI SCIENZE TECNOLOGICHE, FACOLTÀ DI ARCHITETTURA, UNIVERSITÀ DI FIRENZE
BIBLIOTECA GAMBALUNGA, RIMINI
Maria Luisa Masetti
Marcello Di Bella, Orietta Baiocchi
BIBLIOTECA LUIGI CHIARINI, FONDAZIONE CENTRO SPERIMENTALE DI CINEMATOGRAFIA, ROMA
BIBLIOTECA “IGINO BENVENUTO SUPINO”, UNIVERSITÀ DI BOLOGNA
Giancarlo Concetti
Paola Taddia
BIBLIOTECA NAZIONALE BRAIDENSE, MILANO
BIBLIOTECA NAZIONALE CENTRALE, FIRENZE
BIBLIOTECA NAZIONALE CENTRALE, ROMA
BIBLIOTECA TRISI, LUGO
Morena Medri
Leonarda Martino, Pietro Alessandrini
Gloria Bianchino
CINETECA DELLA BIBLIOTECA GAMBALUNGA, RIMINI Gianfranco Miro Gori
CIVICI MUSEI DI STORIA E ARTE, TRIESTE Adriano Dugulin, Michela Messina
COLLEZIONE RENATO MANZONI, IMOLA Daniela Manzoni
CREATIVITALIA, ROMA Enrico Quinto
EMEROTECA, PARMA Roberto Montali
BIBLIOTECA WALTER BIGIAVI, UNIVERSITÀ DI BOLOGNA
CENTRO STUDI E ARCHIVIO DELLA COMUNICAZIONE, UNIVERSITÀ DI PARMA
EMEROTECA CLASSENSE-ORIANI, RAVENNA
Umberto Cicconi, Brunella Frusciante
Laura Gasparini
GALLERIA DEL COSTUME, PALAZZO PITTI, FIRENZE Caterina Chiarelli
ISTITUTO NAZIONALE PER LA GRAFICA, ROMA Maria Francesca Bonetti
LUISA SPAGNOLI S.P.A., PERUGIA Nicoletta Spagnoli, Cristina Bendolini
MAISON GATTINONI, ROMA Stefano Dominella, Edoardo de’ Giorgio
MUSEO CIVICO BAILO, TREVISO Carla Brunello
MUSEO DI ARTE DECORATIVA, CASTELLO SFORZESCO, MILANO Damiano Pastore
MUSEO DI PALAZZO MOCENIGO, VENEZIA Paola Chiapperino, Chiara Squarcina
RICCIONE TEATRO Fabio Bruschi, Antonella Bacchini
UNI.RIMINI S.P.A., RIMINI Luciano Chicchi, Lorenzo Succi
UNIVERSITÀ DI BOLOGNA Carla Giovannini, Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, Giuseppe Sassatelli
UNIVERSITÀ DI MACERATA Paola Pallottino
UNIVERSITÀ DI ROMA TRE Cristina Giorcelli
UNIVERSITÀ IUAV DI VENEZIA Maria Luisa Frisa
FONDAZIONE ALLORI, ROMA
FOTOTECA DELLA BIBLIOTECA PANIZZI, REGGIO EMILIA
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Archivio A.n.g.e.l.o. Vintage Palace, Lugo
Archivio Cicconi, Fondazione Allori, Roma [Archivio Cartoni]
Archivio De Maria, Bologna
Archivio Fotografico, Cineteca di Bologna [Fondo Blasetti; Fondo Comaschi]
Archivio Fotografico, Civici Musei di Storia e Arte, Trieste
Archivio Gucci, Firenze
Archivio La Rosa S.p.A., Milano
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Archivio Maison Gattinoni, Roma [Fondo Ventura]
Archivio Piero Bottoni, Politecnico di Milano
Archivio Tirelli Costumi, Roma [Fondo Zecca]
Biblioteca dell’Accademia di Costume e di Moda, Roma
Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio, Bologna
Biblioteca Civica Centrale di Torino
Biblioteca Comunale Sormani, Milano
Biblioteca del Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, Università di Parma
Biblioteca Civica di Verona [Fondo Magnano]
Biblioteca della Facoltà di Chimica Industriale, Università di Bologna
Biblioteca della Fondazione Istituto Gramsci Emilia-Romagna, Bologna
Biblioteca Gambalunga, Rimini
Biblioteca internazionale di cinema e fotografia Mario Gromo, Torino
Biblioteca Italiana delle Donne, Centro delle Donne, Bologna
Biblioteca dell’Istituto Storico Parri Emilia-Romagna, Bologna
Biblioteca Luigi Chiarini, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Roma
Biblioteca del Museo di Palazzo Mocenigo, Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia
Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, Milano
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma
Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria di Torino
Biblioteca Panizzi, Reggio Emilia
Biblioteca del Polo Scientifico Didattico di Rimini, Università di Bologna
Biblioteca di Scienze tecnologiche, Facoltà di Architettura, Università di Firenze
Biblioteca Trisi, Lugo
Biblioteca dell’Università IULM, Milano
Biblioteca Walter Bigiavi, Facoltà di Economia, Università di Bologna
Cineteca della Biblioteca Gambalunga, Rimini
Collezione Italo Rota, Milano
Collezione privata, Firenze
Collezione privata, Rimini
Collezione Renato Manzoni, Imola
Collezione Enrico Quinto e Paolo Tinarelli, Roma
Civiche Raccolte d’Arte Applicata del Castello Sforzesco, Milano [Fondo Terzoli]
Emeroteca comunale, Parma
Emeroteca Classense-Oriani, Ravenna
Museo civico Bailo, Treviso [Collezione Nando Salce]
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge (MA)
CONTENTS
FASHION, MODERNISM AND FASCISM: AN INTRODUCTION
8
MEASUREMENT
15
211 MARK
TAKING MEASUREMENTS
16
212 CREATORS
SILHOUETTES
22
214 FASHION MAISONS
GRIDS
24
228 BRANDS
TRACCIATI
30
236 MONOGRAMS
PAPER-PATTERNS
32
238 FASCIST SYMBOLS
FITTING
36
244 DUX
BODY IN PIECES
38
246 ART HISTORY
NEW BODY
48
250 ITALIANS IN PARIS
BEAUTY MACHINES
54
252 MEDITERRANEAN
CHRONOMETER OF FASHION
60
258 MODERN ORIGINAL
RATIONAL WARDROBE
66
262 ITALIAN LANDSCAPE
PORTABLE WARDROBE
72
268 INDUSTRY AND AUTARCHY
ZIP
73
278 FASHION INSTITUTIONS
TRANSFORMABLE
74
POSITIVE NEGATIVE
76
289 PARADE
TRANSPARENCIES
78
290 GAITS
SCALE 1:1
80
292 ROME
COLOUR
84
294 MILAN
INDUSTRIAL TAILORING
88
296 FASHION THEATRES
ORGANISATION OF WORK
90
306 STAIRCASES
RATIONING
94
308 RACETRACK
DOMESTIC ECONOMY
95
310 CROSSROADS
MODEL
99
312 CITY EFFECT
321 FASHION CITY
DOLLS 100
332 DIORAMAS
STYLISED POSES 104
334 CATWALKS
SHE-SERPENTS 110
SIRENS 112
STATUES 116
342 TURIN
344 FILM
346 DEPARTMENT STORES
STARS 124
348 TRANS
MASKS 128
350 DRAPERIES
MANNEQUINS 130
356 VENICE LIDO
CELEBRITIES 134
358 CRUISE
MIRRORS 140
FRAMING FASHION 142
360 SEAFRONT
364 ITALIANS IN THE FACTORY
THE TOMBOY 152
366 FACTORY OF ITALIANS
THE SMOKER 154
370 MASS THEATRES
THE INDIFFERENT 156
MALE TYPES 158
SPORTY TYPES 162
POPULAR STYLES 184
TRAVEL STYLES 188
COLONIAL TYPES 192
REGIME MODELS 196
380 LIST OF PERIODICALS
384 BIBLIOGRAPHY
393 INDEX OF CONTRIBUTIONS
394 INDEX OF NAMES
FASHION,
AND
AN
INTRO
Fashion was one of the favoured forms of expressing avant-garde culture
in the early decades of the 20th century and was a legitimate part of modernism which, in Marshall Berman’s definition (1983), was a system of
visions, values and ideas that aimed to render human beings the subjects
and objects of modernisation. The 1920s and 1930s were fundamental
in Italy for creating a fashion culture in which modernism allowed us to
retain high and everyday aspects together and to go beyond the fact
that fashion drew attention above all through the question of the artistic
avant-gardes. In particular, Italian futurism’s interpretation of the modernisation of clothing and fashion had such critical success that it eclipsed
other visions.
The aim of our study is to investigate fashion and modernism in Italy from
the 1920s to the early 1940s. As an autonomous cultural expression, fashion
– on a par with the visual arts and other spheres such as design and architecture – was one of the driving forces behind modernism and not a
reflection of modernity. On this subject an observation by Christopher
Breward and Caroline Evans (2005) seems pertinent. They maintain that it
is not so important to consider how modernity has changed our appearance but rather how the very idea of fashion is part of the condition of
being modern. We have studied fashion’s contribution to the establishment of the modern aesthetic and we have reflected on the wholly Italian
dynamics of comparison with the processes of spreading international
culture and the actions set in motion by the policies of the fascist regime.
The result is not a book about fascism but about fashion in the twenty
years of fascism, from the 1922 March on Rome to the demise of Benito
Mussolini in 1943.
In this work it is modernism that mediates and defines the relationship
between fashion and fascism which, according to historian Roger Griffin
(2007: 6), “can be seen as a political variant of modernism”. Our analysis
concentrates on some key concepts of modernism which establish the
grounds for a comparison between fashion and fascism and which contribute to explaining their mutual interests. These concepts include totalitarian ambitions, the sense of beginning, the epoch-making factor and an
emphasis placed on creation (Griffin 2007: 4). This view breaks with those
which prevailed in fashion writing during the regime: on the one hand they
highlighted in an anti-modern key the restrictions imposed on fashion,
especially the fight against luxury, against xenomania and the curbing of
women’s emancipation; whereas on the other hand they acknowledged
the elements of modernity in government policies of industrial, technological and economic development with regard to fashion. What however is
lacking is reflection on the active role of fashion as a subject of modernism. Another striking aspect of fashion writing is how scant it is. This notwithstanding, there was an intense beginning in the early 1980s of the 20th
century with seminal research such as the exhibition 1922-1943: vent’anni
di moda italiana curated by Grazietta Butazzi (1980); the section “Moda”,
which was curated by Alessandra Gnecchi Ruscone (1983) and was part of
the vast 1982 exhibition Gli annitrenta: arte e cultura in Italia held in Milan;
and in the same year the book Il lusso e l’autarchia by Natalia Aspesi. In
subsequent decades there was very little growth in literature on 1920s and
1930s Italian fashion in comparison with the cultural and publishing ferment
around the art, cinema and architecture of the twenty years of fascism. In
recent years there has been a renewed interest in the subject with Sofia
Gnoli (2000), who investigated the Italian fashion debate from a politicalinstitutional point of view; Caterina Chiarelli (2000), who curated an exhibition focused on women’s fashion; Bonizza Giordani Aragno (2002) with an
exhibition on the relationship between fashion and cinema; Silvia Grandi
and Alessandra Vaccari (2004) with a phenomenological interpretation of
the period; and Eugenia Paulicelli (2004) with an in-depth study of the relationships between style, national identity and politics.
8
MODERNISM
FASCISM:
DUCTION
This book investigates and recomposes the material through the approach of a visual essay, taking account of the aesthetic, design-related
and production aspects of fashion, where the conception and dissemination of clothes goes hand in hand with the creation of cultural images and
practices. This approach pays great attention to the power of images,
questioning them and seeking to restore the complexity and heterogeneity of thought that created them, bringing isolated aspects back into circulation and attempting to identify new relationships between things. We
chose to work on published fashion, setting out from images understood
as fragments of past arguments in order to suggest new connections and
itineraries in a historiographic and critical key. The work involved reflection on the techniques of associating and combining images developed
by modernism in an artistic and historical-artistic context which, beginning
with Aby Warburg’s Mnemosyne Atlas, had so much influence on the formation of art and fashion culture during the 20th century (Clark 2006).
Our research explored the iconography of the period in question, identifying and revealing the importance of so many creators, illustrators,
artists, photographers and models, and contributing to outlining their
identity and that of numerous other fashion figures of the day, including columnists, magazine journalists, fashion lovers and enthusiasts. With
these approaches the panorama emerged in all its vastness of largely
unexplored territory. Without claiming to be exhaustive, the process of
building up the research and compiling the book came about through the
interweaving of materials from different disciplines and involved the retracing and study of an iconography spread throughout fashion, cinema,
society and women’s magazines; photo archives of fashion houses and
companies; exhibition and sales catalogues; books and magazines on
dressmaking techniques, design and architecture; textile, clothing and
footwear company and trade association periodicals and the publications of specialised government bodies. The research was based on
Italian sources and has given great space to fashion magazines which,
better than others, met the needs of the project through their extraordinary ability to produce and promulgate ideas and collective images
in the form of representation. Fashion magazines have a genetic tie with
time and convey a sense of beginning in each new issue. They become
the pulsating memory of fashion which feeds on cuttings: “the repository
of fragments is essential to the articulation of fashion as a phenomenon of
modernity” (O’Neill 2005: 177).
Our study was carried out during the three year period from 2006 to 2009
at the University of Bologna. It involved numerous other universities, institutions, libraries and public and private collections in Italy and enjoyed
cultural and technical support from the Rimini Campus Library which acquired a series of bibliographical documents that were invaluable for our
research. The book follows a twofold movement. On one hand it pursues
modern day narrative patterns where time and actions are measured and
well-ordered, drawing inspiration for linking icons and thoughts that have
emerged through research and comparing them with the irregular materiality of life. On the other hand it employs a conceptual framework set
around four key words dear to modernism and fashion: Measurement,
Model, Mark and Parade. The essay begins by taking measurements
and concludes with an imaginary fashion show. This structure organises
a critical discourse on the modernist concept of fashion design in Italy:
from conception to production, from distribution to consumption. The
emergence of this systemic vision of fashion was expressed by the lively
debate which arose at the time in Italy, at many congresses and in numerous publications, involving fashion creators, industrialists, dressmakers, journalists, writers, photographers, designers, artists and politicians.
Reading through the accounts we get the impression that the establishment of a fashion system in Italy was so urgent that ideological differenc-
9
es, otherwise irreconcilable, could be overcome. It is no coincidence that in the debate on the concept of fashion as a system
of relationships with the economy and industrial development,
figures like Ente nazionale della moda (National Fashion Board)
general manager Vladimiro Rossini and Antonio Gramsci (1928)
found themselves on the same side.
MEASUREMENT inquires into the aspects of modernism most
linked to the concepts of order, rationality, scientific rigour
and technical control. The eager desire for measurement was
applied to the body, to time and to things. The idea was stated
with greater force that tailoring was a scientific and projectual
discipline with its own laws and not dependent on fashion. But
it was precisely the emphasis on the scientific rigour of sartorial measurement that constituted a fashion. Sartorial techniques
were central to the debate in those years, which is borne out
by the existence of numerous specialised magazines such as Eleganze italiane, L’osservatorio sartoriale, La moda maschile and
La scuola moderna. At the same time there was a considerable
production of sartorial treatises, cutting methods and measuring systems, manuals whose roots lay in the enlightenment and
positivist tradition. It is in this key that we should read the words
of writer and critic Massimo Bontempelli (1933) who compared
the tailor Domenico Caraceni to the rationalist architects when
the latter, in 1933, published a system and a treatise concerning
measurement of the human body. In their manuals the tailors and
dressmakers published heliographies of geometrical designs,
diagrams and photographic sequences that portrayed them
intent on taking measurements with the tape or devices of their
own invention. This section aims to be a first step towards an understanding of the relationships between technical-production
aspects of fashion and their cultural representations, a central
question especially with regard to Italy, and to date neglected
in studies of fashion.
“Scientific” measuring instruments and grids subdivided space in
an ordered way; paper patterns and sartorial sketches made an
abstraction of the body, breaking it up into its anatomical parts.
Fashion magazines illustrated a body in pieces since in tailoring, as in gymnastics and plastic surgery, one piece was worked
on at a time. Eyes, nose and mouth were cut out with the same
exactness of the paper pattern for a dress, or vice versa. The
plastic surgery scalpel, which was making its name in those days,
gymnastic discipline and mastery of the body were all instruments for the creation of a new humanity that fascism wanted
to mould. The regime’s discourse affirmed the vision of a “new
man”, also through the doctrine of eugenics and the racial laws.
Fashion design was called on to take part in this vision by stating
a link between biology, racial theory and tailoring. The year of
the racial laws the National Fashion Board published anthropometrical studies by the physician Nicola Pende (1938: 3-7) on the
constitution of the Italian woman, subdivided and classified into
“Alpine race”, “Mediterranean race” and “Adriatic race”.
The scansion of time was closely related to the construction of
modernity. The everyday measurement of existence had its
rhythm and order throughout the 24 hours: the use of diaries
became widespread for planning daily activities, and the 19th
century idea of organising the bourgeois home remained
strong, where every space was assigned a specific function. In
the modern day, time was punctuated by work, movements,
leisure and rest. The measurement of time was reflected in the
elaborate scansion of the wardrobe in the course of an ideal
day, envisaging morning, afternoon and evening dresses. With
each issue the fashion magazines renewed the sense of beginning and they often gave instructions about when to wear the
dresses illustrated. At the same time the fashion of transformable
clothes spread, with their idea of integrated functions offering
a response to the need for quick changes. Obsession with the
passage of time also influenced the regime’s propaganda: they
always stated the precise number of days employed to complete public works, and they dotted the new stations, piazzas,
factories and towns with clocks.
Modernism evinced a real obsession with measuring things,
which was transposed into the scientific organisation of work
and time schedules. In the years between the wars there was a
progressive focusing on the idea of mass clothing production,
10
and fashion opened up to industrial techniques and materials:
Pirelli for example manufactured rubber raincoats and the FACIS,
Fabbrica abbigliamento confezionato in serie (Mass produced
clothing factory) brand was set up. Standards were defined for
the colour card and sizes of ready made clothes. This aspect was
studied in 1940 by the Textile Commission of the UNI (Ente nazionale unificazione 1940) in collaboration with the Corporazione
dell’abbigliamento (Clothing Corporation). The transparency
and sparkle of cellophane fed an aesthetic of purification and the
immaterial. The scientific vision led to combating approximation
and to an insistence on the correction of errors in measurement,
on the elimination of defects in clothes and bodies. An objective
and close-up eye came to the fore, generating representations of
fashion based on enlargement, attention to detail and the X-ray
effect of the photographic negative. This latter vision exalted the
structure of things and was much used at the time for depicting
needlework and crochet: on the one hand the local and regional
lacework published in the Rassegna dell’Ente nazionale della
moda and on the other the ones published in the monthly Fili
which, in the context of women’s work, offered original interpretations of abstractionism and rationalism, with lace and embroidery designed by critics, artists and architects, including Giulia
Veronesi, Franco Albini, Giancarlo Palanti and Gio Ponti.
In 1934 the magazine Maglieria announced that “The most effective method for studying the causes of defects in knitwear is to
observe very enlarged photographs of the fabric and films obtained with special apparatus” (C.C. 1934: 395). Still in the same
field, lenses and microscopes were recurrent themes in fashion
and women’s work magazine graphics, where details of dresses,
yarns and fabrics were shown in detail. The microscope eyepiece
was also the porthole of transatlantic liners and of modern architecture, and it was thenceforth that porthole openings remained
linked to a collective imagination of the future, right down to
André Courrèges’ collection in the 1960s.
MODEL. “Rational fashion arises from the competence in ourselves,” wrote director Anton Giulio Bragaglia in 1933. Fashion
is not only what you wear but a grouping of gestures and behaviours: smoking a cigarette, going to the cinema, driving a
car. Model is the section most directly linked to the question
of “types” – we have dealt particularly with the tomboy, the
indifferent, the she-serpent and the siren – and to lifestyles, an
expression introduced precisely at the end of the 1920s by Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler to indicate the way in which the
individual seeks to build up his existence, prefiguring future behaviour (Woodham 2004). A central text inquiring into mutations
of identity in relation to fashion clothes is the play Nostra Dea
which – written by Bontempelli in 1925 – deals with the symbolist woman in a Novecento key. In this section society occasions,
tourism, sport, care and management of the body are explored
in their relationships to fashion: the journey and the definition of
an essential weekend wardrobe; seaside holidays where costumes and beach pyjamas were worn; sport, with both the codification of technical clothing including the overall and with the
transition towards the everyday urban nature of tennis, riding and
golf clothes; the regime’s demonstrations, with the Young Italian
Girls’ cape and pleated skirt, the fez, the bush jacket and the
regulation boots of the Black Shirts’ uniform. Models of clothes
and behaviour were promoted in Italy under the joint action of
modernism and fascism. The condemnation of cosmopolitan
fashion – seen as a symbol of extravagant urban and bourgeois
lifestyles – was a fixed point in the regime’s criticism, but the
regime was also aware that in order to upgrade the image of
“Italian fashion” certain concessions had to be made to the officially much deprecated cosmopolitan fashion. There was also
an idea of perturbing fascist glamour to which we may trace for
example the monumental and vigorous sirens, Italian interpretations of the vamp, sketched in an exemplary manner by fashion
illustrator Mario Vigolo.
This is the section of dress code and style models that became
reference points for an epoch: from the icon of the duce to Hollywood and Italian film stars. Isa Miranda was the diva of the
period, employed on the screen and in magazines to endorse
Italian fashion. An icon of elegance was Edda Ciano who appeared not only in Italian magazines but also, for example, in
Time. The fashion magazines created a homogeneous image of
the modern woman. In the United States of the 1930s, conformist
ideals produced models who all seemed the same (Arnold 2008)
whereas in Italy the tendency to uniformity cohabited with selection criteria that favoured elegance of bearing and the style of
wearing the garment, rather than the photographic look (Koda
and Yohannan 2009). This is one result of our research, which
brought to light the modern aspects of the modelling profession
through figures like sisters Carmen and Valentina Terzoli and explored the bond between models and the fashion houses that
employed them. The fashion houses felt a great need to communicate a precise image through the choice of a feminine “type”,
as may be seen from the appearance in the fashion magazines
of the long-limbed blonde model for the Giovanni T. Fercioni
fashion house in the second half of the 1930s. It is further borne
out by the use of photomontage, for example grafting the head
of Tamara de Lempicka, taken from a photo by Madame d’Ora,
onto the body of a house model from Fernanda Lamma.
Model is understood as pose. In rhythmic gymnastics, in Giannina Censi’s futurist aerodances, in fashion photography and
also in the outstretched arm of the Roman salute, what strikes
us is the presence of a stylised gesturality, controlled, in certain
ways expressionistic and very selfconscious. The fashion houses
announced original garments. The modern experience was
founded on the dialectic between uniqueness and reproducibility, between individual and mannequin. The vehicles for the
new clothes were cinema, women’s magazines (strewn with new
etiquettes and prescriptions for modernity) and, lastly, fashion
photography which began to gain ground in Italy during that
period. In Milan there were photographers like De Marchi and
Mauro Camuzzi working for the Studio Fotografico Crimella; in
Turin, Luigi Bogino and Lucio Ridenti. Rome was represented by
the Studio Bragaglia, by Elio Luxardo who covered all genres,
including fashion photography and still life, and by the society
portraits of Arturo Ghergo, Ghitta Carell and Eva Barrett who has
yet to be studied in depth. The photographers were the first to
theorise about fashion photography, perceived as a new genre
and field of action. In the second half of the 1930s it consisted of
two visions, represented respectively by Luxardo and Ridenti.
Research has rediscovered the latter’s extraordinary role in the
fashion culture of the age. On the one hand there was the realism
of the snapshot as against the artificiality of the retouch which,
Ridenti wrote (1940: 90), “takes us a hundred years back in time”;
on the other hand there was formal perfection, hypothesised by
Luxardo (1940: 246-47), and achieved through “an actual ‘direction’ in the choice of the ‘frames’, of the composition as a whole
and above all in the attitude of the subject [...] since it is of great
and absolute importance to know how to choose the subject,
the pose and the best moment”.
In the space of fifteen years fashion photography moved from
the ethnographic model of cataloguing to the construction of atmospheres that could say something about the clothes. In 1925
the magazine Fantasie d’Italia was founded which published
specially commissioned fashion photographs, thus breaking the
mould of buying French photographs from international agencies. Fifteen years later the fashion magazine Bellezza was offering photography of narrative glamour and theatrical atmospheres. It was the age of the secular interpretation of charisma.
MARK examines the links between fashion and the processes of
constructing national identity, between autarkic policy and plans
for industrial development. The twenty year period of fascism inherited the legacy of the great debate between art and industry
that had influenced Italian culture since the beginning of the 20th
century. Between 1922 and 1923 the magazine Arte pura e decorativa came out, a school of decorative arts was opened at Villa
Reale in Monza and, also in Monza, a biennale of decorative arts
was set up, run by Guido Marangoni until the end of the decade.
In the 1920s, against a background of the emergent Novecento
style, the nascent culture of design and fashion were brought together by the need to upgrade the identity and originality of the
Italian product. They shared a nationalistic spirit, a desire for comparison with the international situation and an urge to favour the
integration of ideational, productive and commercial aspects.
Lastly, they shared the need to achieve these objectives through
a new way of understanding the design-related professions.
Fashion drawing emerged as one of the most original and important aspects in reinforcing the still fragile identity of Italian
fashion in the 1920s. The first events promoting “Italian” fashion
were organised around the fashion sketch: from the pioneering
Mostra della moda femminile (Women’s Fashion Exhibition) at
the Circolo artistico internazionale in Rome (1914), with fashion
sketchs by Sto (Sergio Tofano), Aleardo Terzi, Vittorio Grassi and
Bruno Angoletta (Piccini 1922; Bossaglia, Quesada and Spadini
1987), to the exhibition promoted by the magazines Lidel, Vesta
and Per voi signora at the Galleria il Milione in Milan (1933). The
latter exhibition was held in a leading gallery of the Italian avantgarde and was introduced by Pietro Maria Bardi’s text which declared, “Let’s get down to writing fashion criticism” (Bardi 1933:
4). There were drawings by Brunetta, René Gruau, Nino Pagotto,
Mario Soresina, Ester Sormani and Albe Steiner, photographs by
Mauro Camuzzi and models of dresses from the fashion houses
Bernasconi, D’Avanzo, Palmer and Radice, created on the basis
of the sketches on show.
In the first issue of the magazine Quadrante Mario Soresina
pointed out fashion as a problem (unresolved) for Italy and interpreted, in a nationalistic key, the need to train artists as specialists
in fashion drawing, in textile design, “who know how to make a
dress or any garment, imagining it on the wearer” (Soresina 1933:
30). In an article four years later Soresina hoped for the creation
of a University of Fashion where models, fashion designers and
illustrators might be trained (M.S. 1937). The regime policy also
attributed importance to fashion drawing and design, with the
intention of forming a new creative class. It was in this context that
the Regia Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti of Turin established
a Scuola d’arte del figurino per l’abbigliamento (Fashion design
school), directed by Giuseppe Vitrotto, at the behest of the Ente
nazionale della moda (Bollettino ENM 1942/a).
If it is true that up to the early 1930s Italian magazines published
mainly French models, it is equally true that Italian artists worked
for them, some of whom developed such a personal identity as
to be proposed as original creators of models, as in the case of
Brunetta, René Gruau, John Guida, Filiberto Mateldi and Mario
Vigolo. In the absence of a complex, efficient fashion industry as
in France, it was also through the instruments of fashion drawing
that Italy fine-tuned its own temporary identity in those years.
The Measurement section has shown how affirmation of the cultural authority of tailors and dressmakers came about through
spreading a projectual and scientific vision of their profession.
Instead, fashion creators gave greater weight to the artistic
element, as in the case of Marta Palmer, she herself part of the
avant-garde artistic and literary scene (De Buzzacarini 1985). As
Marta Palmer wrote (1929/a: 21), commenting on the fashion
shows at the X Milan Fiera campionaria (Trade Fair), Italian creators “are taking a line of pure art and experiencing the joy of
colour, abandoning the old dressmaking systems of pleats, à
jour, trimmings and suchlike. / The show was a triumph of colour
and line: impressionism and modernity, and no abstruseness”.
Fashion creators got new attention from the media, they talked
about their artistic training, sought alliances with the cinema and
reinforced the recognisability of their style. The activity of the
main Italian fashion houses turned around their image. Stylistic
specificities are identified and evaluated in this section, the result
of the first phase of a far vaster work, much of which is yet to be
carried out. The survey has been chiefly iconographic, interrelating images of clothes, photographs of fashion house interiors,
brand graphics, editorials and interviews with proprietors. The
brands taken into consideration include Ventura, Fumach-Medaglia, Giovanni T. Fercioni, Sandro Radice, Gabriellasport, Biki,
Fernanda Lamma, Sorelle Botti, Giovanni Montorsi, Nicola Zecca
and Luigi Bigi. In Paris the extraordinary figures of Elsa Schiaparelli
and Vera Borea came to the fore whom, with designers like the
French-Italian Gruau, the book considers not with nationalistic
intent but in order to understand the important role they played
in opening up Italy to international fashion.
In fashion as in art, creative independence is one of the great
themes of modernism. The regime made rhetorical use of the
creators’ artistic qualities to promote the idea of a “purely” Italian
fashion. In December 1932 a law was issued to establish the Ente
autonomo per la mostra nazionale permanente della moda (In-
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dependent Board for the Permanent National Fashion Exhibition)
in Turin, which was transformed in 1935 into the Ente nazionale
della moda. During the 1930s the Ente organised fashion trade
fairs and shows, twice a year in spring and autumn, also handling
coordination of trends and related publishing activities. Documento moda was a luxury volume on fashion trends, published
annually from 1941 to 1943 by the Ente with the aim of promoting fashion as part of contemporary artistic culture, side by side
with painting and the cinema. One of the Ente’s objectives was to
create a fashion documentation centre at the Turin headquarters.
The material included photographs of garments from fashion
houses enrolled with the Ente, issues of national and international fashion magazines, cloth samples and historic fashion-plates
(Bollettino ENM 1938).
It was above all in the second half of the 1930s that the Ente nazionale della moda intensified its commitment to promoting Italian
creativity by inhibiting the importation and copying of French
haute couture. The Mark of guarantee was established in 1936,
with the purpose of ensuring the Italianness of the design and
production of clothing, and was followed by establishment of
the trademark Texorit, for Italian textiles, and the Golden Mark
for the most exclusive high fashion creations.
Those were years of great industrial growth in the textile and
clothing fields, further stimulated by the autarkic policies launched
by the regime as a reaction to sanctions imposed on Italy by the
League of Nations during the conquest of Ethiopia in 1935. The
regime saw autarky as a form of economic autonomy for Italy by
avoiding the importation of raw materials. In the fashion sector it
was concentrated on the production of textile fibres, leather and
furs, both real and artificial. Inseparable from nationalistic and
propagandistic causes, autarky became a way of affirming an
ideology, as demonstrated by the 1936 publication of the Commentario dizionario italiano della moda by writer Cesare Meano.
The work took its place in a broader government project to Italianise foreign loan words and it made direct reference to fashion
figures like Biki, René Gruau and John Guida who were transformed into Bichi, Renato and Gion. For this book it was decided
to retain the spelling usage of the reference period, noting all the
various versions in the Index of Names.
In the textile field there was a revaluation of local and colonial resources such as the rough woollen cloth of Sardinia, the
Casentino fabric from Tuscany and Ethiopian cotton. An attitude
emerged – crossing all disciplines – which we have defined as
“modern original” and set in relation to the concepts of Mediterranean rationalism and Italian primitivism. An example in architecture is Luigi Cosenza and Bernard Rudofsky’s Casa Oro
in Posillipo. This vision of modern original includes the sense
of a new beginning, as in the “Industria tessile senza macchine”
(Textile industry without machinery) theorised by Anita Pittoni
(1939: 54) and the “dressmaking without dressmaker” of Austrian architect Rudofsky. In Italy the latter came into contact with
the circle of Gio Ponti and the magazine Domus where, in 1938,
he published his first nucleus of reflections on the inhumanity of
fashion, anticipating the themes of his fundamental 1944 exhibition Are Clothes Modern? at the MOMA in New York. Rudofsky
(1938: 10-11) believed that “there is no hope for a human garment
until we change our way of seeing the human body only through
the eyes of tailors and dressmakers”.
A whole aesthetic was developed around the autarkic policy.
Enthusiasm for the artificial purity of new industrial products was
perceptible even in the phantasmagorical names – Acesil, Argentea, Lunesil, Fibrilla, Ivorea and Viscofan – used to market
one of the most widespread fibres of the day: rayon. Autarky
and artificial fibres took a predominant place in official exhibitions such as the Mostra del tessile nazionale (National Textile
Exhibition) in Rome, between 1937 and 1938, a high profile event
in regime propaganda. Our critical interpretation of the autarkic
question has brought out, for the first time, a hypothesis of its dependence on the forms of avant-garde art, borrowing especially
from futurist and surrealist principles of surprise and exaltation
of the incongruous: for example the “milk dress” in Lanital fibres
celebrated by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Reptilia and Sirena
leather shoes by SALP (Società anonima lavorazione pelli) and
the ones by Ferragamo made from cellophane wrappers for
sweets. An early idea of “Made in Italy” was outlined in the ex-
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portation of Italian fabrics and in the growth of industrial brands
like Superga, Persol, FACIS and Luisa Spagnoli. This section includes the debate between provincialism and cosmopolitism in
Italian culture of the period. In the cities and small towns fashion
had a profound influence on craft and industrial production, as
well as on people’s taste and style (Gundle 2006). From Perugia
to Torviscosa, from Biella to Cesano Maderno, that polycentric
Italian landscape was delineated which is still so characteristic of
Italian fashion today.
PARADE. As in fashion itself, in the book the parade is the conclusive moment. This section deals with one of the central places of
formation, in the early decades of the 20th century, of the modern
aesthetic. Metaphor of consumption, the logics of standardisation and the flow of the modern day, it presents the rite of the
fashion show in its elements of seriality and tackles the theme of
the display of fashion in the form of exhibitions, shop windows,
cities and catwalks. At the beginning of each season Italian fashion
houses announced shows of their latest collections. For spring
1924 Vittorio Roveri quantified its own in one hundred models,
some original and some French (Lidel 1924). Presentations were
held on the dressmakers’ premises and, from the 1920s onwards,
at the increasingly frequent collective shows. On the occasion of
the 1923 Milan Fiera campionaria the Fashion Pavilion was inaugurated with the aim of putting on shows with French and Italian
fashion houses. The first building was in wood but as early as
1924 was replaced by the Palazzo della moda in brick (Vera 1924).
Following the example of Milan, fashion buildings and theatres
sprang up in other Italian cities including Turin and Bologna. The
Milan experience was also one of the first forms of coordination
among fashion houses which, in 1924, came together in the Sindacato dell’alta moda italiana (High Fashion Union) coordinated
by Vittorio Montano, director of the fashion maison Ventura. In
1929 the CIMA, Consorzio industriale mostre abbigliamento (Industrial Consortium of Clothing Exhibitions was founded with the
support of the Confederazione generale fascista dell’industria
italiana (General Fascist Confederation of Italian Industry). Still
coordinated by Montano, the purpose of the initiative was to set
up a national fashion palazzo in Milan and to organise shows in
high society venues like the Grand Hotel Excelsior at the Venice
Lido (Moda C.C. 1929: 15).
In the second half of the 1920s fashion shows were still held
without a catwalk and they maintained the frontality of a theatre
stage. In a bare setting, to avoid distracting attention from the
creations, the models came out at a rhythmic pace, pirouetting to
show the dress through 360 degrees. The 1930s saw the introduction of monumental raised catwalks that passed among the public
and opened up vanishing points. Fashion shows fed the collective imagination of high society and were one of the fashion promotion instruments in which the regime invested considerably,
starting with the Ente nazionale della moda initiatives. From 1933
onwards, twice a year in spring and autumn, Turin hosted the
Mostra nazionale della moda (National Fashion Exhibition), promoted by the Ente and held in the building created by Umberto
Cuzzi through intervention on the existing Palazzo del Giornale
in Valentino Park. After the VI Fashion Exhibition in autumn 1935
all traces were lost of this event’s rigorous regularity. With the
objective of “bringing together all textile products and clothing
activities”, the Salone delle industrie tessili e dell’abbigliamento
(Textile Industries and Clothing Salon) opened in 1936 at the XVII
Milan Fiera campionaria, “under the aegis of the Ente nazionale
della moda” (Sovrana 1937). “Official event” fashion shows remained in Turin, but not at the 1933 Palazzo. Designed in rationalistic trade-fair style and gaudily painted orange, this structure
was certainly functional in its planimetric organisation but gradually revealed its temporary nature and was replaced by a more
lasting building designed by Ettore Sottsass senior. The Palazzo
della moda, in the new look given by Sottsass, was inaugurated
in 1938 on the occasion of an event entitled Turin and Autarky
(La rivista illustrata del Popolo d’Italia November 1938). 1940 was
the last year of the Turin event: great space was given to textiles
(De Angeli Frua, Marzotto, Piacenza) and to mass production (La
Rinascente, FACIS).
A show within the show, the Istituto Luce newsreels regularly
documented fashion events: the procession the of authorities
at the opening, the visit to the rooms, the sequence of display
windows and mannequins. At the Mostra del tessile nazionale in
Rome Mussolini attended the fashion show and received a Roman
salute from the models.
Careful analysis of materials allowed us to examine the change in
fashion exhibition methods, setting out from the presupposition
that there is a visual and functioning analogy between the catwalks
and the cinema camera. Unlike the small fashion theatres of the
early 20th century, which imposed a frontal vision of the models,
the catwalks of the 1930s alluded to a rhythmic, simultaneous and
serial vision of clothes in movement. As Caroline Evans writes
(2006: 72), the fashion show expressed “a desire to materialise
modernity rather than represent it”. In this perspective there was a
continuity between the dynamic vision of cinema and the contemporary lifestyles formerly praised by futurism: the advent of car
races like the Mille Miglia, and new shopping streets appearing
in the cities, like Via Roma in Turin. The asphalt ribbons of the first
Italian motorways linked the industrial cities of the north and led to
the ski slopes and beaches that began to function as winter and
summer catwalks for holiday and weekend rituals. “How many
times I put my foot down on the accelerator of my Balilla in the
direction of the Turin motorway! I set off with cases full of woollen
sweaters and ski-pants, but also elegant evening dresses for the
weekend,” recounts Gabriella di Robilant in her autobiography
(Di Giardinelli 1988: 71-72), talking about her trips to Sestrière, a
tourist resort created in the 1930s by the Agnelli family.
The linearity of fashion shows was not so different from the geometry of military parades: the similarity of the models’ bodies and
the uniforms of the Giovani italiane (Young Italians); the regime’s
parades and industrial mass production; depersonalising order
and the cinematography of new behaviours dictated by Hollywood.
The parade was fundamental to the regime’s choreography,
starting with the 1922 march on Rome. Soldiers marched with the
Roman step – introduced by Mussolini in 1938 – and the parades
of the fascist party organisations exalted the uniform, symbol of
the levelling and depersonalising order imposed by the regime.
In his diary the writer Giaime Pintor (1978: 38) recalls the regime’s
preparations for Hitler’s visit to Rome in 1938: “We penetrated
deeply into the spectacular complex of totalitarian regimes. We
learned to disappear among the tens of thousands of people
who took part in the parades, to walk to the sound of traditional
music and to enjoy the impersonality granted by a uniform. During
Hitler’s stay in Rome we didn’t miss a single parade”.
The mass marching past was also the “designed” mass, as may
be seen from the group photos of athletes, students and children.
The dancers’ perfect legs and the rhythmic exercises of children in
holiday camps, which the regime identified as “factories producing Italians”. The same goes for the group photos of students at
the Girls Vocational Training schools, with the perfect alignment of
their checked smocks, and at the Accademia nazionale femminile
di educazione fisica (National Female Academy for Physical Education) in Orvieto, with uniforms that highlight an idea of collective
discipline. The group photograph satisfied the regime’s choreographic bent and corresponded to the taste for order, series and
geometrical composition in an industrial aesthetic of goods and
bodies, as Siegfried Kracauer noted in his 1927 article “The Mass
Ornament” (Kracauer 1995).
The media spectacle of the masses was recounted in newsreels,
documentaries and films. Those were the years when the Istituto
Luce, the Cinecittà studios and the Centro sperimentale di cinematografia (Experimental Cinematography Centre) were set up
in Rome. The 1937 film Contessa di Parma, directed by Alessandro
Blasetti, may be considered a programmatic manifesto of the new
collaboration between fashion and cinema that was a feature of
the regime years. It is not at random that the film closes with a
sumptuous catwalk.
MARIO LUPANO
ALESSANDRA VACCARI
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