The Fashion Businessrelevance of style to national identity has been addressed by a number of
authors, the evolution of a specifically Italian national style in fashion has
never been defined.^3 The three principle sources which offer evidence for an
international commercial understanding of a distinct “Italian look” in these
post-war years are: analysis of surviving garments in museum and private
collections, the opinions of witnesses and contemporary press coverage.
Traditionally, well-off Italian women looked to Paris for their fashion.
The alternative to French couture was the extensive network of Italian
dressmakers, many of whom had very good reputations, and achieved very
high technical standards, especially with embroidery.^4 Despite their quality,
it was normal practice for the top professional dressmakers to import designs
from Paris, and copy or “translate” them. By the interwar years there were
three principle agencies, known as “Model Houses” (Modellisti) which
facilitated this process. Maria Pezzi, now in her 90s, worked for an agency
from 1936, and has a unique private archive of her designs. She described
both the process and her role within it in interview.^5 Translations were made
in two principal ways: firstly, concentration on the decorative element as
testimony to the Italian tradition of great craftsmanship, and secondly,
simplification of the original idea in line with the so-called ‘poorer market’.
Although these two themes can be traced through the post-war years, it is
the latter, simpler look which triumphed in the late twentieth century.
According to Pezzi, these “translations” were shown collectively to the
smarter Italian dressmakers, who purchased them in the form of toiles or
patterns, and then copied them for the Italian market.
Reduction of the dependence of Italian dressmakers on Paris style was
integral to the Fascist pursuit of self-sufficiency in this period and, as Grazietta
Butazzi has established, there was a determined government effort to establish
an Italian style, based on regional peasant models.^6 From 1933, designers
received both financial and promotional government support (including
official exhibitions of both Italian textiles and fashion), which was given on
the condition that the designers created original styles. In 1941 Bellezza was
established as the “official magazine” of Italian fashion, and published many
articles in support of an independent Italian style.
- The relationship between America and Italian fashion style is addressed in White, Nicola,
Reconstructing Italian Fashion: America and the Development of the Italian Fashion Industry,
Oxford: Berg, 2000. - This is corroborated by the contents of the Pitti Palace Costume collection, Florence.
- Maria Pezzi in interview, Milan, 13.10.95.
- Butazzi, Grazietta, 1922–1943 Vent’ Anni di Moda Italiana, Florence: Centro Di, 1980.
The Fascist period in Italy was 1923–43.