The Glamour of Italian Fashion

Gianfranco Ferré ad, 1991, Photographer: Gian Paolo Barbieri Model: Aly Dunne (V&A exhibition publicity)

The Glamour of Italian Fashion 1945-2014 is an exhibition at the V&A which I felt I should not miss, for two reasons. Firstly, I love fashion and really wanted to look at the 1950s clothes in the show, 1950s being my favourite decade, fashion wise. Secondly, I am Italian, so this representation of Italian glamour intrigued me. I am very interested in the way glamour is culturally inflected. What is English glamour, for example?
I went with a friend, who is visiting from the States. We both gaped at the extraordinary workmanship on display, beautifully tailored clothes, amazing gowns, and we appreciated the detail of the designs.
The exhibition was neatly arranged by decade, clothes draped on dummies, with clips from much loved films which helped to put Italian fashion on the map - Roman Holiday, La Dolce Vita and many more.
I much admired the Bulgari jewellery on display, the diamond and emerald parure which Richard Burton gave to Elizabeth Taylor - Bulgari by the way is the main sponsor of this exhibition. I also  positively drooled over the shoes and bags I encountered while moving from one gallery to another.

Photographers: Faby and Carlo. Model: myself

I appreciated the history of Italian post-war fashion, its birth in the family run atelier, and was reminded of the fact that well into the 1960s many Italian women had the opportunity to get their clothes made to measure in a little sartoria, it was not unusual nor particularly beyond the means of an average salary. That is how Italian fashion houses developed, from the little, unpretentious  family run sartoria.
What was missing throughout the exhibition was the real body, as clothes have to be worn in order  to be truly appreciated. I honestly don't know how this can be resolved in the context of an exhibition - maybe there could be a fashion show with real models wearing replicas? But perhaps that would be incredibly expensive to organise. Still...Maybe more films showing the clothes being actually worn? Dummies do little for me.
It seems that this exhibition is quite a milestone as within Italy fashion is only understood to be a business, not a subject worthy of academic enquiry, thus this kind of effort aimed at tracing the history of fashion is somewhat alien. I can't get my head round it, truly. Or is it that histories of Italian fashion are not available in the English language?

Photographer: Karolina Amberville. Models : myself and Alexa Taylor

The other point worth reflecting upon is what the film carefully put together by the curator and shown in the last gallery also asks: what is the future of Italian fashion? I will rephrase the question. In this age of increased globalization, with outsourcing being now a constant, can one really talk of Italian fashion as such? Can one talk of a sustainable Italian fashion ?
I do not have an answer.



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