Stefano Tonchi

Italianness is an idea that the whole world seems unable to live without. Why? Stefano Tonchi, curator together with Maria Luisa Frisa of the “Italiana: Narrating Italian History Through Fashion 1971-2001” exhibit (at Palazzo Reale from February 22nd), responds by asking her in turn. “Perhaps it is a subliminal question that belongs to the world’s unconscious, one always attracted by the added value that is the beauty of the environment. To start with, there’s its countryside, then move to its art and architecture, followed by its food and fashion. Go to Eataly and talk about cheese and soprassata, which aren’t a Gucci bag or Armani suit, but when you close your eyes they become that unique thing called Italy. We think of Versace: a technological designer who made the world dream, overlapping experimentation with antiquity and the Renaissance.” It recounts thirty years of history: a long span of time. We started off with “Bellissima,” which was a bit like the prologue of “Italiana” because there was talk of haute couture, but it is ready-to-wear that introduced our fashion to the world. “Italiana” is a point of view, one of many, which analyzes this unique phenomenon: the birth of Made in Italy. Like in the movies there will be a sequel, “Italiana 2” or “The Italian strikes again”... We aren’t exaggerating. Of course, one can do exhibits that are even more specific. This is the result of a subjective look, made up of some personal choices and others linked to current events. As Maria Luisa Frisa says, it is an aggressive approach that wants to defend Made in Italy but also criticize it, searching for a position that is neither on the winning nor losing side. Is it a critique specifically of today’s Made in Italy? Of course, a critique of the “politics” of Italian fashion that has never been there. Vanessa Friedman summed up the current situation beautifully last September in an article in The New York Times: the fashion shows in Milan offer us wellmade products and plenty of cleavage rather than ideas or answers. How do you defend Made in Italy? More than coming to its defense, it is a matter of highlighting an exceptional and unique phenomenon in the world, one born in the particular structure of the industrial system that Italy has had since the postwar period, one often made up of family-run companies that have been able to adapt to changes in society where a housewife becomes a clerk and a man from a trendy family is willing to spend on his own image rather than invest for the future. All this has benefitted our fashion. Similar circumstances did not occur in France, for example, where investments in the postwar period were directed mainly at big industry. “Italiana” appears to be a very generic title. It is an adjective that becomes a noun, in the American sense. But it is not an all-knowing or

chronological exhibit. There are nine non-thematic rooms, with pieces of art, design and fashion in conversation. In the Unisex room, Pistoletto’s mirrors suggest a subject who has fallen in love with his own image. Other moments are more evocative, such as the reconstruction of the Diorama of the Alchimia studio that was on the cover of Domus in the 70s, or the exhibit that shows the revolutionary character of the relationship between objects and clothes in the work of Cinzia Ruggeri. Certain Italian industries have the ability to express themselves through different professional figures... There are industries with a product that then rely on “designers” not to create or invent but to give a unique style to the product itself. Think of Walter Albini or Armani, who starts by styling Cerutti, Allegri’s raincoats or Hilton’s overcoats before they became what they are now. It is a phenomenon that does not exist elsewhere, and it is very difficult to explain to a non-Italian what a stilista (“designer”) is. It is untranslatable; a “stylist” is something altogether different. It is a exhibition that takes risks. Very much so. We do not know who will be happy and who won’t. But the history of fashion in Italy wasn’t made only by designers but also by businesses like Jenny, Callaghan or personalities like Albini or Gigli. Why 1971? It’s a symbolic date, namely the first ready-towear runway show by Albini in Milan. Why 2001? For September 11th, both for the enormity of the tragedy and because it upset the balance in the global market. The French start buying Italian businesses. They recognized the value of a brand before we did during a moment of weakness in our economy. What did Italians do during the period covered by the exhibit that others didn’t do? Anticipate the glocal, mix personal and local, and inject collections with cultural and social experiences. Versace with Magna Graecia, Marras with Sardinia, Prada with the conflict between the Milanese bourgeoisie and the social and political reality of the ‘70s and ‘80s. No foreign designer did the same – Lacroix did maybe a little bit. Most worked at their desks on an intellectual and experimental level. Italians are able to translate their inspirations into something very commercial. So what went wrong? In the mid-90s everything was done to put Italy at the center of the world, diluting our talent or exporting it. In those years, for example, there were no photo shoots done by an Italian. We had to encourage a culture of Italian fashion. How? Obsessing about the product, and perhaps its quality, made us forget that fashion is also in search of ideas, experiments, philosophies and concepts that have their own life independent of the product. The arrogance of craftsmanship made us forget the importance of knowing how to create intellectuality around a manual dexterity. This also applies to other fields, such as Italian art or literature. Which period had the most influence on how Italian fashion was perceived in the world? The 80s. It’s when the power of Italy’s image burst onto the scene. Those who saw a country in the grip of terrorism in the late 70s then came across three years later a paradise of pleasure and good living. Italy moved from political battles to the discotheques. The sexual liberation of the 60s returned to the radicalized, anarchic and apolitical dimension of the disco. Italian fashion wore this transition on its sleeve. From disco to the world. A section of the exhibit, “Elsewhere,” tells of when everyone started to travel. And they come back with souvenir images rather than anthropological or cultural finds. Even here Italian fashion seizes the moment before others and manages to tell it. There is the democratization of luxury. Logomania explodes. Designers extend their vision by transforming the objects that surround us. Lifestyle is born, and no one can shape it like the Italian brands. Ralph Lauren will do it, but only much later. Which objects? In the “Museum of Fashion” section, there are fifty-odd objects that became status symbols: the Tod’s shoe, where the shoemaker embraces rubber technology; the Prada backpack from 1978, a pivotal year; the Naj-Oleari bag; Diesel’s stonewashed jeans, invented by Italians; Bottega Veneta’s braided leather; the Max Mara overcoat; Fendi’s Baguette bag. The Best Company sweatshirt, the first Italian embroidered sweatshirt, was something new and crazy. How would you define these products? It goes from mass-produced artisan goods to industry with a craft focus. An underrated figure during those three decades? Moschino. He explores postmodernism. In his offering there is already everything: the body, the absolute power of the word, of the message, of communication. Missed opportunities? Not having created a generation that conceptualizes fashion. Since 1985 there has been no renewal. Who most represented Italian Style: the man or the woman? Man has been more innovative. Menswear is an Italian invention. There’s Italian vanity. Women played around with more typologies. From the hypersexual woman to the manager. You have reversed the point of view: it isn’t society or culture that look upon fashion but fashion that looks upon society. We wanted to show how Italian industry has reflected these changes. Albini expresses this very well by living the atelier outside of the atelier, in factories, not only real ones but also, and especially, those of ideas. A theme for each decade. The 70s: liberation; the 80s: disco and excess; the 90s: international minimalism and contact with the world. Is Italianness still fashionable? Yes, definitely. But it works when you update the content in the collective imagination. Think of the films of Guadagnino. There is nothing more Italian. It’s not Mafia or Popes or the Renaissance. The Italianness that the world loves is bourgeoisie, good living. We close with a quote from the 1984 book L’Italia della moda by Silvia Giacomoni: “If you do not address the problem of homosexuality, and its eternal hide-and-seek with disguises, one cannot understand what has been, up to now, fashion.” Indeed, it is a fundamental theme for those years.

Versace was openly gay when the idea was almost unacceptable. Also in this the Italian fashion of that period was revolutionary. It opened the eyes of a still backward and prudish nation. (Trad. Ivan

Carvalho) • original text page 256