The Fashion Businessmade garments are presented as Italian, but the name of the Italian “designer”
is printed alongside the source of direct Parisian inspiration. For example, in
summer 1948 one model was sold by couturier Galitzine, and worn by the
Italian socialite Countess Crespi, but was described as a ‘modello Christian
Dior’.^10 This means that either Galitzine was buying in Paris and simply
reselling in Italy, or, more likely, had bought a toile or a pattern and was
reproducing copies or adaptations. Evidently, either way, this represented
excellent publicity value for Galitzine.
Yet by Autumn of that year, Linea Italiana claimed that Italian dressmakers
were fed up with paying the prices charged by French couturiers for the right
to copy; some, they said, had paid ‘incredible figures’.^11 In the same period
there was also a marked increase of interest in the international position of
Italian fashion. Even before Italy’s collective international shows of the 1950s,
commentators began to notice both a conscious effort to move away from
Paris dominance, and the emergence of a discernible Italian style. For example,
following the liberation of Italy, but before the end of hostilities, the young
and elegant editor of US Vogue, Bettina Ballard, visited Rome and wrote in
her memoirs that she was astonished by the ‘lovely, warm-skinned Roman
women in their gay pretty print dresses... and Roman sandals’ and felt
instantly unfashionable.^12 Ballard recounts how she quickly found a local
dressmaker ‘to bring my civilian clothes up to Roman standards of fashion’,
and ‘sent all the information I could to Vogue about the way the Romans
lived and dressed and entertained’.^13
As early as January 1947, US Vogue covered the major fashion houses of
Italy, and offers an invaluable insight into the American perception of Italian
style just after the War.^14 This is crucial, because the US represented the
- Brin, Irene, ‘Fashion in the eternal city’,Linea Italiana, Summer 1948: 14, ‘La Contessa
Consuelo Crespi indossa “flamme en rose” (modello Christian Dior)’. See also Perkins, Alice,
Women’s Wear Daily, 31.3.50, p. 7, ‘Stein and Blaine custom originals and interpretations of
Paris models. Examples include a bouffant taffeta dress adapted from Balmain (and a)
Balenciaga printed taffeta with a slim skirt’. - ‘Moda d’Autunno a Roma’, Brin, Irene, Linea Italiana, Autumn 1948, ‘una certa
amarezza ha accompagnato i sarti italiani nel loro viaggio di ritorno da Parigi; alcuni avevano
speso cifre incredibili’ (a certain bitterness has accompanied Italian dressmakers on their return
trip to Paris; some have spent incredible figures). This piece also features the key Italian
dressmakers of 1948: Tizzoni, Fiorani, Rina Pedrini, Noberasko, Biki, Veneziani, Fercioni,
Battilochi, Fontana, Carosa, Simonetta, Gattinoni, and Fabiani. - Ballard, Bettina, In My Fashion, London: Secker and Warburg, 1960, p. 184.
- Ibid.
- Mannes, Marya, ‘The Fine Italian Hand’, US Vogue, January 1947, p. 119. The same
article was published in British Vogue in September 1946, 44–9, p. 81.