Fashion under Fascism: Beyond the Black Shirt

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Professor Eugenia Paulicelli (Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center, USA) Joanne B Eicher (The University of Minnesota USA)

Fashion under Fascism

Beyond the Black Shirt

Professor Eugenia Paulicelli (Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center, USA), Joanne B Eicher (The University of Minnesota USA)

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English

Bloomsbury Visual Arts
01 May 2025

History of art & design styles: from c 1900 -; Industrial: Commercial Art & Design

Series: Dress, Body, Culture

Looking at the dark history of Italian fashion by focusing on the impact of 1930s Fascism, this is the second edition of Eugenia Paulicelli's classic text.

In Fashion under Fascism, Paulicelli explores the subtle yet sinister changes to the seemingly innocuous practices of everyday dress and shows why they were such a concern for the state. Importantly, she also demonstrates how these developments impacted on the global dominance of Italian fashion today. Alongside interviews with major designers, such as Fernanda Gattinoni and Micol Fontana, this newly expanded revised edition includes updated material on gender and masculinity, the role of uniforms in standardizing individuality, race and colonial Italy, and the reception of 1930s cinema. It sheds new light on the complicated relationship between style and politics and is an essential read for all those interested in the history of fashion, politics, national identity and the culture of fascism.

By: Professor Eugenia Paulicelli (Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center USA)
Edited by: Joanne B Eicher (The University of Minnesota USA)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: 2nd edition
Dimensions: Height: 238mm, Width: 160mm, Spine: 26mm
Weight: 880g
ISBN: 9781350353367
ISBN 10: 1350353361
Series: Dress, Body, Culture
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 01 May 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Preface: Fashion/Fascism: Odd bedfellows? Chapter 1: Introduction: Fashion/Fascism Fashion and historiography Methodology. Thinking Fashion, Rhythm and Spatializing Time Object and Intersectionalities Beyond the Black Shirt: Continuity and Change La moda è una cosa seria. Fashion is a Serious Business Gianna Manzini and her Approach to Fashion Structure and Sources Chapter 2 Fashion/Fascism: Why and How it Matters Origins of Italian Fashion? Fashion and totalitarianism Uniforms and Fashion under Fascism “Read my Pins” Chapter 3 Per una moda italiana: From the Interwar Years to Fascism Imagining an Italian Style: Between Modernity and Tradition Regional Dress and Fashion during Fascism Rosa Genoni: Fashion and Feminism in 1910s Performing Dress and Gender: Futurist Avant-gardes between Nationalism and Revolution From Balla to Thayhat: Transgressing Gender and Genres in the New Language of Dress The Fascist “New Woman.” Lydia De Liguoro and the Project for an Italian Fashion “An Italian Fashion does not exist yet. We must create it” Chapter 4 The Language of Fashion: Narratives, Style and Women’s Voices under Fascism The Discourse on Fashion under the Fascist Regime: the 1936 Italian Commentary Dictionary of Fashion by Cesare Meano Restless Voices. Femininity, Motherhood and Gender in Women’s Writing in the Fashion Magazine Bellezza Dress, Style and the National Brand: Meano’s Commentary on Nationalism Sport, Gender and Models of Femininity in Meano’s Commentary Chapter 5 Cinemoda and Cinelandia under Fascism The Istituto LUCE Fashion Film: Education, Entertainment, Propaganda Fashion, Film and the Politics of the Regime From Hollywood to France and then to Italy: Alta Moda in Alessandro Blasetti’s Contessa di Parma (1937) Grandi Magazzini, Department Stores and Standardization Dressing the Mass Market: I Grandi Magazzini (1939) by Mario Camerini Chapter 6 Nationalizing the Fashion Industry? The Intelligent Fibers: Between Innovation and Autarchy Fashion and Fascism for Export: Race, Colonialism, Empire. From Ethiopia to New York Italy at War. Autarchic Textiles and Clothing at the 1941 Venice Exhibition Looking Back: The National Conference on “Clothing and Autarchy.” Turin, June 1940. Italian Fashion between Alta Moda and Confezione (Ready to Wear) Chapter 7 Conclusions Fashion and Fascism after Fascism Interrogating the Past. Fashion between History and Memory: Appendices: Interview with Micol Fontana by Eugenia Paulicelli (June 2000) Gianna Manzini, “Fashion is a Serious Business” Alba De Céspedes, “Eve and the Feathers” Illustrations from the fashion magazine Bellezza Notes Bibliography Index

Eugenia Paulicelli is Professor of Italian and Women’s Studies at The Graduate Center and Queens College of The City University of New York, USA, where she is the Founder and Director of the Concentration in Fashion Studies. She is author, editor and co-editor of 13 books and monographs. Among her latest publications: Italian Style: Fashion & Film from Early Cinema to the Digital Age (Bloomsbury: 2016); The Routledge Companion to Fashion Studies (with V. Manlow and E. Wissinger, 2021).

Reviews for Fashion under Fascism: Beyond the Black Shirt

This book demonstrates why fashion is such a great lever to activate our thinking about politics – politics of space, material and the body. The holistic understanding of such multiple politics, grounded in historical studies of moving clothes and moving images, emerges here forcefully from Eugenia Paulicelli’s study of Fascism’s cultural genealogy. Her book exposes Italian Fascism as an insidious ideology of the everyday, of a ‘way of life', and she strongly reminds us that Fascism may change its guise but, alas, has yet to go out of fashion. * Ulrich Lehmann, The New School, New York, USA * This is a timely update to a book that at once responds to the sociopolitical circumstances of the past, but also explains their continuing relevance in the present. New content added since the first edition twenty years ago has transformed a classic text into a comprehensive guide to how fashion has shaped Italian identity under fascist rule and beyond. * Julia Petrov, Royal Ontario Museum, Canada * This illuminating book offers a critical reinterpretation of the cultural role of the fashion industry under Fascism and the regime's policies. Seamstresses, journalists, artists from the Futurist movement and cinema were key players in a transformation that helped shape the identity of Italian fashion. Eugenia Paulicelli offers an innovative guide to Fascist-era fashion and its controversial legacy. * Emanuela Scarpellini, University of Milan, Italy * The new edition of Eugenia Paulicelli's pioneering Fashion under Fascism provides a rich and deeply illuminating analysis of the cultural, social and economic processes of Mussolini's Italy. Informed by a wealth of new research, it deals authoritatively with male as well as female fashion, the role of cinema, the birth of Italian style and the legacy of fascist fashion. The book is an indispensable work for anyone interested in modern Italian culture and society. * Stephen Gundle, University of Warwick, UK *