MC 213 Italian Style: Fashion in Italian Culture

In Iconic: The Masters of Italian Fashion, internationally renowned fashion illustrator Megan Hess explores ten of Italy's best-known designers to show how they have changed the thread of style.

A complete reference book on contemporary Italian fashion photography This project is born from the will to celebrate Italian fashion photography and begins the first phase in selecting and cataloging of professionals over a time period of two years. The intent of this work is to bring togeather the relevant professionals in the sector in a paper based archive which will become a consultation tool for agencies, creative studios and those passionate about the sector. From the point of view of selected photographers, the publication becomes an additional support for their promotion and visibility. "The photo archive" is the visual concept of this publication, which is notable from the typografic composition (simple and technical), the clean and serial layout (it gives relevance to the photographs) and from the alphabetic division (which reminds and recalls the abecedary and from where the title took inspiration).

"The essence of Italian style through fashion and costume in the 20th century in a handsome volume that captures the evolution of Italian fashion's biggest brands. The fashion archive of Enrico Quinto and Paolo Tinarelli has been painstakingly assembled over the last twenty years and traces the international evolution of costume from the mid-19th century to the present day. This quintessential volume on Italian style narrates the development of fashion through around three hundred dresses, chronologically ordered and selected from an international collection of over six thousand pieces, enriched by commentary by historians, journalists, and fashion designers, but also by photography, film, and personal testimony: a concrete resource for historians of costume, students, and those passionate about style. The idea of departing from a purely chronological sequence springs from a desire to demonstrate the vitality and ongoing relevance of historical pieces through their juxtaposition with contemporary examples. Most of the displayed dresses were documented by photographers when they first appeared on famous actresses, models, and jet-set personalities of the time: from the Duchess of Windsor to Queen Paola of Belgium, from Princess Grace of Monaco to Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, Veruschka, Marisa Berenson, and Grace Jones, among many others."

Stunning fashion photography, archival material, and previously unseen objects from private collections are paired in this beautiful book with specially commissioned essays to illuminate the secrets of Italy's la bella moda. Featuring designers and labels of the highest caliber alongside bespoke tailors and ready-to-wear menswear specialists, the book offers an unparalleled look at the inspiration, marketing, skill, and craftsmanship behind the finest Italian labels. "Made in Italy" is an internationally recognized mark of style. From the 1940s to the present day, Italy's fashion achievements--haute couture design and innovative ready-to-wear, artisanal leather and fur production, high-end textiles, knitwear, and fine tailoring--are undeniable. Curated by Sonnet Stanfill, a leading authority on contemporary fashion and a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Italian Style: Fashion Since 1945 is an essential resource for fashion historians, designers, and anyone captivated by the enduring allure of Italian style. This beautifully illustrated volume celebrates the legacy and future of one of the world's most influential fashion cultures.

Catalog of an exhibition held at the Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy November 24, 2015-March 6, 2016.

Before Gucci, Prada, and Versace, a new wave of trailblazing Italian designers laid the groundwork for the global fashion empire we know today. In The Origins of Italian Fashion: 1900-1945, acclaimed fashion historian Sofia Gnoli masterfully traces this pivotal, often-overlooked era. This book is a fascinating journey that begins with the groundbreaking work of Lombard tailor Rosa Genoni, who defied French dominance to create Italy's first independent fashion house. Gnoli then guides you through a period of immense cultural change, revealing how Italian style evolved and emerged as a powerful national force. Through a wealth of rare archival material, including captivating illustrations from early Italian fashion magazines and stunning images from designer houses, this book sheds light on the creative minds who shaped a new aesthetic. You will meet: Gabriella di Robilant, the "inventor" of Italian sportswear, who revolutionized leisure dressing. Salvatore Ferragamo, and his innovative orthopedic shoes that blended craftsmanship with cutting-edge design. The legendary Elsa Schiaparelli, a key protagonist of Italian style whose influence continues to resonate today. Gnoli's research also delves into the complex relationship between fashion and the Fascist regime, exploring how a national style was co-opted as a tool for propaganda. This is not just a history of clothing; it is a cultural narrative about how a nation used style to forge a new identity. The Origins of Italian Fashion: 1900-1945 offers a rich, visual, and scholarly account of how Italian fashion came into its own.

Becoming couture is the first book to examine the history of the Italian fashion industry during the global transition brought about by the Second World War. It draws on a wide range of primary sources, some of them newly unearthed, to demonstrate that the Italian fashion industry in the Republican era continued to rely on business practices and professionals established during Fascism. Analysing changes in promotional discourses and press coverage, the book traces the shift that occurred when manufacturers were encouraged to expand their exports of accessories to include sportswear, knitwear and moda boutique. This ultimately led to the legitimisation of Italian dressmaking as creatively independent of French influences and therefore worthy of the label 'couture'.

"What’s hot in Italian fashion now, and what soon will be hot. New stars are rising in the Italian fashion world—a varied group comprised of a young generation of designers who studied at fashion schools in Italy and abroad, who love contemporary art and architecture and are not afraid of facing new challenges. They all understand that it is necessary to go beyond the label of "Made in Italy" in order to find a new global identity for Italian fashion. The designers have been chosen by Maria Luisa Frisa for their critical philosophy of breaking with tradition and their ability to define new scenarios that emphasize "dressing" as part of a composite process."

This fascinating, abundantly illustrated book delves into the evolution of Italian advertising and fashion posters, showing how social developments and economic expansion were reflected in commercial art. Advertising served as an ideal vehicle for fashion, as seen in the dreamy fin-de-si cle ladies drawn by Aleardo Terzi in his posters for the Magazzini Mele in Naples. The splendid elegance of these images reflects the ambitions of the country's newly ascendant bourgeois class. As advertising came into its own as a powerful means of information and propaganda, posters and magazines became fertile ground for adventurous creativity. It was here that the greatest artists, illustrators and fashion designers of the day displayed what they were capable of. Above all, the works presented in this publication chart how Italy developed a sense of itself, coming to understand its place in the modern world. This was a time of rapid expansion for Italian fashion, an era when Italy and its distinctive cult of style were projected internationally as the very essence of "la bella figura." Among the illustrators featured here are Umberto Brunelleschi, Cornelio Gerenzani, Amedeo Bocchi, Marcello Nizzoli, Giorgio Federico Dabovich, Marcelo Dudovich and Gian Emilio Malerba.

Catalog of an exhibition held within 21st Triennale di Milano at the Palazzo della Triennale, Milan, Italy, April 2-September 12, 2016.

"Will eco-friendly fashion dress the future? Can fashion be sustainable? Sustainability is a challenge that cannot be ignored today. Sustainable fashion reassesses the material and manufacturing components without renouncing the aesthetic and symbolic. The Beautiful and the Good highlights—with the aid of case histories—how we are going through a profound and necessary change of paradigm in the culture of consumption"

"The story told in this book, which analyzes the presence of Italians in California in the early decades of the twentieth century and the influence they exerted in various sectors (from architecture to art, from crafts to the burgeoning film industry), began in 1915, the year Salvatore Ferragamo arrived in the United States and soon after moved to the sunny West Coast. That same year the Panama-Pacific International Exposition opened in San Francisco, where Marcello Piacentini’s Italian Citadel made waves and marked the beginning of the powerful and lasting influence of the Renaissance style on the local architectural language. Against the backdrop of Italian emigration to the States-the fil rouge running through the entire book-and of a Hollywood on its way to becoming the world capital of the young film industry, the volume tells of personalities who were already myths in their day, such as Enrico Caruso, Rudolph Valentino, Lina Cavalieri, and Tina Modotti; cinematic milestones like Cabiria, Ben-Hur, and Romola; the star system and iconic directors; the important part played by Italian musicians in the birth of jazz; and the thousands of Italians who worked "behind the scenes," making a vital contribution to the creation of the Hollywood myth. This complex story, told both in words and in images, paints a varied and multifaceted picture of the "set" on which the Shoemaker of Dreams began his thrilling creative adventure in America. Exhibition: Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, Palazzo Spini Feroni, Florence, Italy "