Fashion under Fascism

Looking at the dark history of Italian fashion by focusing on the impact of 1930s Fascism, this is the second edition of Eugenia Paulicelli''s classic text. In Fashion under Fascism , Paulicelli explores the subtle yet sinister changes to the seemingly innocuous practices of everyday dress and shows why they were such a concern for the state. Importantly, she also demonstrates how these developments impacted on the global dominance of Italian fashion today. Alongside interviews with major designers, such as Fernanda Gattinoni and Micol Fontana, this newly expanded revised edition includes updated material on gender and masculinity, the role of uniforms in standardizing individuality, race and colonial Italy, and the reception of 1930s cinema. It sheds new light on the complicated relationship between style and politics and is an essential read for all those interested in the history of fashion, politics, national identity and the culture of fascism.>

Auteur
Eugenia Paulicelli is Professor of Italian and Women's Studies at The Graduate Center and Queens College of The City University of New York, USA, where she is the Founder and Director of the Concentration in Fashion Studies. She is author, editor and co-editor of 13 books and monographs. Among her latest publications: Italian Style: Fashion & Film from Early Cinema to the Digital Age (Bloomsbury: 2016); The Routledge Companion to Fashion Studies (with V. Manlow and E. Wissinger, 2021).

Texte du rabat

"This new edition of Fashion under Fascism expands the work of Eugenia Paulicelli's classic text - and includes updated material on gender and masculinity, the role of uniforms in standardizing individuality, race and colonial Italy, and the reception of 1930s cinema. Paulicelli explores the subtle yet sinister changes to the seemingly innocuous practices of everyday dress and shows why they were such a concern for the state, while demonstrating how these developments impacted the global dominance of Italian fashion today. Including interviews with major designers, it is an essential read for all those interested in the history of fashion, politics, national identity and the culture of fascism"--

Contenu

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Preface: Fashion/Fascism: Odd bedfellows?

Chapter 1: Introduction: Fashion/Fascism

Fashion and historiography

Methodology. Thinking Fashion, Rhythm and Spatializing Time

Object and Intersectionalities

Beyond the Black Shirt: Continuity and Change

La moda è una cosa seria. Fashion is a Serious Business

Gianna Manzini and her Approach to Fashion

Structure and Sources

Chapter 2 Fashion/Fascism: Why and How it Matters

Origins of Italian Fashion?

Fashion and totalitarianism

Uniforms and Fashion under Fascism

Read my Pins

Chapter 3 Per una moda italiana: From the Interwar Years to Fascism

Imagining an Italian Style: Between Modernity and Tradition

Regional Dress and Fashion during Fascism

Rosa Genoni: Fashion and Feminism in 1910s

Performing Dress and Gender: Futurist Avant-gardes between Nationalism and Revolution

From Balla to Thayhat: Transgressing Gender and Genres in the New Language of Dress

The Fascist New Woman. Lydia De Liguoro and the Project for an Italian Fashion

An Italian Fashion does not exist yet. We must create it

Chapter 4 The Language of Fashion: Narratives, Style and Women's Voices under Fascism

The Discourse on Fashion under the Fascist Regime: the 1936 Italian Commentary Dictionary of Fashion by Cesare Meano

Restless Voices. Femininity, Motherhood and Gender in Women's Writing in the Fashion Magazine Bellezza

Dress, Style and the National Brand: Meano's Commentary on Nationalism

Sport, Gender and Models of Femininity in Meano's Commentary

Chapter 5 Cinemoda and Cinelandia under Fascism

The Istituto LUCE Fashion Film: Education, Entertainment, Propaganda

Fashion, Film and the Politics of the Regime

From Hollywood to France and then to Italy: Alta Moda in Alessandro Blasetti's Contessa di Parma (1937)

Grandi Magazzini, Department Stores and Standardization

Dressing the Mass Market: I Grandi Magazzini (1939) by Mario Camerini

Chapter 6 Nationalizing the Fashion Industry?

The Intelligent Fibers: Between Innovation and Autarchy

Fashion and Fascism for Export: Race, Colonialism, Empire. From Ethiopia to New York

Italy at War. Autarchic Textiles and Clothing at the 1941 Venice Exhibition

Looking Back: The National Conference on Clothing and Autarchy. Turin, June 1940. Italian Fashion between Alta Moda and Confezione (Ready to Wear)

Chapter 7 Conclusions

Fashion and Fascism after Fascism

Interrogating the Past. Fashion between History and Memory:

Appendices:

Interview with Micol Fontana by Eugenia Paulicelli (June 2000)

Gianna Manzini, Fashion is a Serious Business

Alba De Céspedes, Eve and the Feathers

Illustrations from the fashion magazine Bellezza

Notes

Bibliography

Index