Shortlisted for the Association of Dress Historians Book of the Year Award, 2024
In the first book to examine the role played by textile manufacturing in the development of fashion in Italy, A New History of ‘Made in Italy’ investigates Italy’s transition from a country of dressmakers, tailors and small-scale couturiers in the early post-Second World War period to a major producer of ready-to-wear fashion in the 1980s. It takes the reader from Italy’s first internationally attended fashion show in 1951 to Time magazine’s Giorgio Armani April 1982 cover story, which signalled the fashion designer’s international arrival, and Milan’s presence as the capital of ready-to-wear.
Chapters focus on the material substance of Italian fashion – textile – looking at questions including the importance of manufacturing quality, design innovation, composition, production techniques, commerce and the role of textile on the country’s overall fashion system. Through these, Lucia Savi brings to light
the importance of synthetic fibres, previously little-known players, such as the carnettisti (a type of textile wholesalers) as well as re-investigating well-known couturiers and designers such as Simonetta, Gianfranco Ferré and Gianni Versace.
By looking at how things are made, by whom, and where, this book seeks to unpack the ‘Made in Italy’ label through a focus on making. Informed by extensive archival materials retrieved from a wide range of sources, it brings together the often-separated disciplines of fashion, textile and design history.
By:
Lucia Savi (The Design Museum UK)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 25mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781350247796
ISBN 10: 1350247790
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 12 December 2024
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
List of Figures Acknowledgments Glossary Introduction Locating Italian Fashion Made in Italy Researching ‘Made in Italy’ Primary Research Sources The Inside-Out Method Research Parameters Chapter Structure 1. Fibers and the Making of Italian Textiles in the Post-War Period Introduction Italy between Tradition and Modernity Between Couturiers and Manufacturers From Paris to the USA’s influence The Fascist Period and the 1930s Fibers and Politics Italian Fashion’s Materiality Natural, Artificial and Synthetic Fibers Silk, artificial and synthetic fibers SNIA Viscosa and Fibers Promotion The Legitimization of New Fibers 2. The American Export Market and its Influence on Italian design Introduction Textiles Make Fashion: Italy at Work and Sala Bianca Italian Fashion in Italy at Work Italian Textiles in Italy at Work Sala Bianca Italy and the USA: Export and Domestic Market The Value of Hand Made and Machine Made in Italy and USA Boutique Fashion as Proto Italian Ready-to-Wear The Mechanisms of Copies– Italy and the USA between ‘Made in Italy’ and Export Made in Italy and Export The Transatlantic Commerce of Italian Couture: Simonetta Case Study Ready-to-Wear versus Couture The Value of Copies 3. The 1960s, a Decade of Metamorphosis in Italian Fashion Introduction Treaty of Rome and Export The Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI) and the Promotion of High Fashion New Ways of Production, with New Products and New Ways of Consumption Industry and Alta Moda Boutique of Ready-to-Wear 4. Fashion meets Industry: The Role of Carnettisti in Domestic and International Markets Carnettisti in Italy The Assortitori Tessuti Novità (Sorter of New Textiles) Distribution of Textiles in the 1960s Carnettisti in CNMI: Towards a Codified Role and Crisis 5. Milan and the Stilisti Introduction Rise of Milan Distretti Industriali (Industrial Districts) The Stilista, the Link between Textile and Fashion Production Stilista and Industrial Production Transition from Carnettista to Stilista 6. Designing for Mass-Production Designing Fashion Literature Review for Fashion Working Drawings Fashion Working Drawing Decoded Paper, Type of Drawing and Inscriptions Style and Aesthetics Textiles Gianfranco Ferré: a Case Study Conclusion Inside Fashion: the Role of Materials and Production Fibers and materials Internationalization Industrialization Bibliography Index
Lucia Savi is a curator at the Design Museum, London. In 2021 she curated the V&A exhibition Bags: Inside Out and authored its accompanying publication. Dr Savi has a PhD from Kingston University, UK, on Italian fashion and textiles, and has contributed to fashion and design exhibitions and their catalogues including The Glamour of Italian Fashion 1945–2014 (V&A, 2014) and Beyond Bloomsbury: Design of the Omega Workshops 1913-1919 (Courtauld, 2009).
Reviews for A New History of ""Made in Italy"": Fashion and Textiles in Post-War Italy
"""In this long-awaited study, [Savi] probes with surgical acuity the connections in economics and fashion history that led to the worldwide spread and ... democratization of Italian fashion ... [exploring] new territory in terms of both method and sources ... with crisp color illustrations, indispensable for the reproduction of fabric patterns and drawings."" --The Journal of Design History ""A beautifully researched, 'inside out' study demystifying the origins of Made in Italy fashion ... A long overdue resource."" --Sonnet Stanfill, V&A London, UK ""Highly original ... offering radically new insights into postwar Italian fashion and its links with production, industrial and technological advances, and the fashion system."" --Giuliana Pieri, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK ""Bringing together textile and fashion history and meticulously researched, Savi brings an innovative and important material and making-based dimension to understand the post-WWII rise of Italian fashion in new ways."" --Catharine Rossi, University for the Creative Arts, UK ""The first study to bring together two well-documented but hitherto unconnected fields - post-war Italian fashion and post-war Italian textiles. Savi has brilliantly understood the umbilical cords that link them."" --Penny Sparke, Kingston University, UK"
