lifestyle
'Italiana': History through fashion
By: Esme lim
THROUGHOUT HISTORY, fashion has served as a visible indicator through which we can gauge the state of society. Take the sudden shift of the Roaring Twenties for example, when important political and legal progress for women’s rights correlated with a rejection of the corset in favour of a straighter, more boyish silhouette. Indeed, one could almost follow the progress of female emancipation throughout the twentieth century by charting the gradually rising hemlines of women’s skirts like some kind of sartorial graph.
This is the central premise a new exhibition unveiled last month to kick off Milan Fashion Week. ‘Italiana – L’Italia vista dalla moda 1971-2001’ considers Italian society in a period of social development and change as reflected in the fashion of the time. The curators, W magazine editor-in-chief Stefano Tonchi and professor Maria Luisa Frisa did not pick their dates at random, choosing symbolic points in history with which to open and close the exhibit. Tonchi explains; “We look at some important social moments in the history of Italy and how fashion mirrored these changes in Italian society and the world at large”. The year 1971 marks the birth of Italian ready-to-wear with Walter Albini’s first catwalk show in Milan. Previously, the country’s designers had focussed on alta moda designs for an aristocratic audience and traditionally presented their latest works in Florence. The exhibition covers the period up to 2001, when Italy’s family-owned brands began to be overtaken by the global conglomerates that dominate the fashion world today.
The curators of Italiana have elected to address their subject matter thematically rather than chronologically. Each of the 9 rooms at Milan’s Palazzo Reale is dedicated to a specific moment in Italian history and how fashion mirrored it. For
IMAGE SOURCE: ESME LIM