Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Fashion of the New Italy (1945–1965)

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Italian Fashion since 1945

Part of the book series: Italian and Italian American Studies ((IIAS))

  • 552 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter shows how the Italian reconstruction after the Second World War was based on both economic and cultural elements, and aimed at outlining a new identity for the country, which was also reflected in the fashion industry. The reconstruction of two fundamental industrial sectors is then considered. First of all, the textile industry, its time-honoured origins through the nineteenth century and up to the twentieth, which has always been a strong point of Italian production. Secondly, the garment industry, with a more traditional character, which developed mainly in the post-war period. The chapter then illustrates the formation of a first nucleus of original Italian fashion, which took place around the first “fashion capitals”, Rome and Florence, where the first famous fashion shows took place.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Roman Holiday, directed by W. Wyler, USA 1953. This description, like those at the beginning of each subsequent chapter, depicts an important scene of a particularly significant film of the period.

  2. 2.

    The description of this and of the subsequent wardrobes was realized thanks to the responses to a large survey with semi-structured questionnaires, complemented by targeted interviews, conducted in the Autumn of 2014. In addition, further interviews were conducted. Those of A. with G. Bertasso in 2015 were particularly useful for their wealth of information; in this case, the reference is mainly to the interview of 13 October 2015 in Milan. Regarding the family referred to here, cf. the interviews with Raimondo B. born in 1932 and Concetta A. born in 1933, conducted by A. Bonanno in 2014.

  3. 3.

    Regarding this, cf. the observations made by C. Lévi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques (1955), Criterion Books, New York 1961, pp. 207–208.

  4. 4.

    J. Mokyr, The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1990, pp. 96–99.

  5. 5.

    F. Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845), Penguin Books, London and New York 2009.

  6. 6.

    F.H. Cook, Hua-yen Buddihsm: The Jewel Net of Indra, Pennsylvania State University, University Park 1977, p. 2.

  7. 7.

    Mokyr, The Lever of Riches cit., pp. 99–103; G. Berta, L’Italia delle fabbriche. La parabola dell’industrialismo nel Novecento, il Mulino, Bologna 2014; F. Amatori, A. Colli, Impresa e industria in Italia. Dall’unità ad oggi, Marsilio, Venice 2003.

  8. 8.

    A. Castagnoli, E. Scarpellini, Storia degli imprenditori italiani, Einaudi, Turin 2003, pp. 100–111. In the wool industry, apart from the poles indicated, there were various other firms, like Silvio Bozzalla’s Filatura di Grignasco and, in the South, those of Giuseppe Gatti. Ibid., pp. 254–255.

  9. 9.

    Regarding the raw materials import markets, cf. G. Federico, S. Natoli, G. Tattara, M. Vasta, Il commercio estero italiano 1862–1950, Laterza, Rome and Bari 2011, pp. 2–3, 40.

  10. 10.

    Castagnoli, Scarpellini, Storia degli imprenditori italiani cit., pp. 111–116, 252–254.

  11. 11.

    E. Merlo, Moda italiana. Storia di un’industria dall’Ottocento a oggi, Marsilio, Venice 2003, pp. 76–83; D.W. Ellwood, Rebuilding Europe: Western Europe, America and Postwar Reconstruction, Longman, New York 1992.

  12. 12.

    Castagnoli, Scarpellini, Storia degli imprenditori italiani cit., p. 442; A. Carreras, “Un ritratto quantitativo dell’industria italiana”, in Storia d’Italia. Annali 15. L’industria, eds. F. Amatori, D. Bigazzi, R. Giannetti, L. Segreto, Einaudi, Turin 1999, pp. 242–244.

  13. 13.

    Istat, Sommario di statistiche storiche dell’Italia, 1861–1975, Rome 1976, p. 94; B.R. Mitchell, International Historical Statistics, Europe 1750–2005, Palgrave, Basingstoke and New York, pp. 561–579.

  14. 14.

    G. Pescosolido, “Industria e artigianato”, in Annali dell’economia italiana, vol. 1946–1952, tome 2, Ipsoa, Milan 1982, p. 88; Ibid., vol. 1959–1964, tome 2, Ipsoa, Milan 1982, pp. 121–124.

  15. 15.

    Istat, Annuario statistico del commercio interno 1957, Rome 1959, p. 42.

  16. 16.

    Istat, Annuario statistico italiano 1956, Rome 1957, p. 297; Ibid., Annuario statistico italiano 1961, Rome 1962, pp. 294–302.

  17. 17.

    Merlo, Moda italiana cit., pp. 50–64.

  18. 18.

    N.L. Green, Ready-to-Wear and Ready-to-Work: A Century of Industry and Immigrants in Paris and New York, Duke University Press, Durham and London 1997, p. 44.

  19. 19.

    Ibid., pp. 44–51.

  20. 20.

    G. Berta, Appunti sull’evoluzione del Gruppo GFT, GFT, Turin 1989, pp. 16–17, 49–51. The first general anthropometric measurements were later promoted by the Ente italiano della moda: cf. Le misure antropometriche della popolazione italiana: l’abbigliamento delle classi giovani dai 6 ai 19 anni, Franco Angeli, Milan 1979.

  21. 21.

    A. Testa, Facis advertising poster, 1959, in Facis Sidi Cori. Un’analisi condotta sui fondi dell’archivio storico sulla grafica e la pubblicità dal 1954 al 1979, Gruppo Gft, Turin 1989, p. 76.

  22. 22.

    Castagnoli, Scarpellini, Storia degli imprenditori italiani cit., pp. 386–391, 388–390.

  23. 23.

    I. Paris, Oggetti cuciti. L’abbigliamento pronto in Italia dal primo dopoguerra agli anni Settanta, Angeli, Milan 2006, pp. 153–154.

  24. 24.

    A. Merlotti, “I percorsi della moda made in Italy (1951–2010)”, in Enciclopedia italiana di scienze, lettere e arti, Appendice VIII, Il contributo italiano alla storia del pensiero, eds. V. Marchi, F. Profumo, vol. III, Tecnica (1950–2000), Istituto dell’Enciclopedia italiana, Rome 2013, pp. 630–640.

  25. 25.

    N. Rossi, A. Sorgato, G. Toniolo, “I conti economici italiani: una ricostruzione statistica, 1890–1990”, Rivista di storia economica, X, 1, February 1993, p. 34.

  26. 26.

    Pescosolido, Industria e artigianato cit., p. 94; Annali dell’economia italiana, vol. 1959–1964, tome 2, pp. 133–135.

  27. 27.

    Paris, Oggetti cuciti cit., pp. 96–97.

  28. 28.

    E. Merlo, “When Fashion Met Industry. Biki and Gruppo Finanziario Tessile (1957–72)”, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 1, 20, 2015, pp. 92–110; Ibid., Moda e industria 1960–1980, EGEA, Milano 2012.

  29. 29.

    F. Amatori, Proprietà e direzione. La Rinascente 1917–1969, Franco Angeli, Milan 1989; E. Papadia, La Rinascente, il Mulino, Bologna 2005.

  30. 30.

    Paris, Oggetti cuciti cit., pp. 65–67.

  31. 31.

    R. Arnold, “Il significato dell’alta moda nella storia della moda”, in Moda. Storia e storie, eds. M.G. Muzzarelli, G. Riello, E. Tosi Brandi, Bruno Mondadori, Milan 2010, pp. 54–62; V. Steele, Paris Fashion: A Cultural History (2nd edition), Berg, Oxford and New York 2006; European Fashion: The Creation of a Global Industry, eds. R.L. Blaszczyk, V. Pouillard, Manchester University Press, Manchester 2018.

  32. 32.

    C. Capalbo, Storia della moda a Roma. Sarti, culture e stili di una capitale dal 1871 a oggi, Donzelli, Rome 2012, pp. 127–131.

  33. 33.

    S. Gundle, Death and the Dolce Vita: The Dark Side of Rome in the 1950s, Canongate, Edinburgh 2011.

  34. 34.

    Capalbo, Storia della moda a Roma cit., pp. 132–137; S. Gundle, “Hollywood Glamour and Mass Consumption in Postwar Italy”, Journal of Cold War Studies, 4, 3, 2002, pp. 95–118; E. Paulicelli, “Framing the Self, Staging Identity: Clothing and Italian Style in the Films of Michelangelo Antonioni (1950–1964)”, in The Fabric of Cultures: Fashion, Identity, and Globalization, eds. E. Paulicelli, Hazel Clark, Routledge, London and New York 2009, pp. 53–72; E. Paulicelli, Italian Style: Fashion & Film from Early Cinema to the Digital Age, Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2017.

  35. 35.

    Capalbo, Storia della moda a Roma cit., pp. 154–158.

  36. 36.

    S. Stanfill, “Introduction”, in The Glamour of Italian Fashion Since 1945, ed. S. Stanfil, V&A Publishing, London 2014, pp. 8–29.

  37. 37.

    V. Pinchera, La moda in Italia e in Toscana. Dalle origini alla globalizzazione, Marsilio, Venice 2009, p. 30.

  38. 38.

    Ibid., p. 36.

  39. 39.

    Ibid., pp. 288–301.

  40. 40.

    Ibid., pp. 139–144, 155–171; cf. also E. Merlo, F. Polese, “Costruire una capitale della moda: Milano, le premesse ottocentesche, il risveglio degli anni Cinquanta”, in Annali di storia dell’impresa, 19, 2008, pp. 49–108.

  41. 41.

    Merlo, Moda italiana cit., pp. 94–99.

  42. 42.

    R. Marcucci, Anibo e made in Italy. Storia dei buying offices in Italia, Vallecchi, Florence 2004; Pinchera, La moda in Italia e in Toscana cit., pp. 237–239.

  43. 43.

    P. Klee, Angelus Novus, painting, 1920.

  44. 44.

    W. Benjamin, “On the Concept of History, IX (1940)”, in Gesammelte Schriften I:2, Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1974.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Emanuela Scarpellini

Authors
  1. Emanuela Scarpellini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emanuela Scarpellini .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Scarpellini, E. (2019). The Fashion of the New Italy (1945–1965). In: Italian Fashion since 1945. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17812-3_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17812-3_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-17811-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-17812-3

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation