PUT IT ON OR : USE IT AND ENJOY ! THE TRANSCULTURAL AND SYNERGIZING HISTORY OF ITALIAN FASHION AND INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Abstract

Among the three international fashion hubs Paris, Milan, and New York that have dominated fashion production since the 20th century, Italian fashion stands out through its transcultural Italophony. Since the historic beginnings of the West, the development of fashion, taste and etiquette in modern Italy plays both culturally and historically a key role in European politics, economics, literature, fine arts, music and theatre. This applies also to Italian design, which is – like fashion – a powerful nonverbal language in cultural, aesthetical and economic terms, expressing a unique and life-affirming sociological habitus. This essay intends to pinpoint the outstanding impact of taste, fashion and design originating from Italy and perceivable all over the world on a transcultural and transdisciplinary level. Starting with antiquity and Renaissance, both disciplines enter a period of prosperity and success during the golden 1950s and 1960s, supported by the rise of Cinecittà, family business structures and crafts enterprises. In early postmodernity, a shift takes place from Alta Moda to Pronto Moda, from fashion as art to popular, serial industrial ready?to?wear, and a complex reciprocal synergetic effect builds up between the fashion and design brands. Both sectors are equal in terms of international influence and versatility, both are associated complementary to each other, and both disseminate a new standard of shapeliness, elegance and peachiness in the whole country as well as on a transnational scale.