Italy: Fashion, Style and National Identityfirst to see the couture, even in the 1940s, the casual yet elegant nature of
Italian boutique style was highly praised. Boutique was seen to fit the mood
of the times, and offered something very different to French couture, whilst
developing the Italian reputation for quality, fabric and colour. It is this sector
which most obviously pointed the way forward towards the mass-produced,
fashionable, high-quality casuals, for which Italy is so famous today. By the
mid-1960s, the casually elegant look was also emerging at ready-to-wear
level.
The allure of internationally sold Italian fashion in this period remains an
important facet of Italy’s national stylistic identity in fashion. Today, as
Christopher Breward points out in The Culture of Fashion, ‘The power of
clothing itself to communicate difference in terms of nationality’ is becoming
‘muddied’, as the Western world becomes increasingly conscious of fashion,
the migration of designers between countries continues and collections are
often manufactured and presented outside the designer’s home nation.^56
Nonetheless, it is still possible to discern the fundamental elements of Italian
style which have been identified here. Both the colourful sexuality of Versace
and the restrained sophistication of his rival Armani are internationally
recognized and celebrated; good quality, soft tailoring in innovative cutting-
edge fabrics remains the backbone of Italian fashion style. What is not widely
recognized is that the roots of these styles can be traced directly to the
flowering of Italian style in the immediate post-war decades. Even the ever-
metamorphosing “must-have” styles of Prada and Gucci (figure 11.7), with
their emphasis on luxurious, high-status modernity through the clever use of
fabric, pattern, hue, texture and decoration, are clearly connected to the easy,
sexy designs of the pioneers of Italian “boutique”. Despite the muddied
waters, the style of fashion presented in Italy can still be seen to contrast
with that presented in France, for example, which tends to focus on
experimentation rather than wearability. The significance of America to
Italian fashion style continues to develop, as American designers and
executives are increasingly employed in Italian fashion, and as American stars
become an increasingly important form of publicity.
There can be no doubt that the foundations for Italy’s contemporary success
in the sphere of “sport’s chic” were laid during the 1950s and early 1960s,
and that there was an internationally recognizable and recognized “Italian
style” by the end of this period. Pucci’s 1960 predictions reported by Women’s
Wear Daily, under the title ‘Pucci Sees Couture Doom, Ties High Fashion to
Ready-to-Wear’ were accurate; at the start of the twenty-first century,
mainstream Italian fashion is known precisely for its wearable elegance in
high-quality ready-to-wear and it is through this national stylistic identity
that the secret of Italy’s fashion success lies.