ABSTRACT
The title of my essay references one of the many contradictions that characterized Italian fascism. Namely, on the one hand, the project of defining a new “italianità” within the politics of nationalism, while on the other a project of expansion and internationalization.
During fascism, fashion was taken seriously by the state as evinced by the founding of institutions such as the Ente Nazionale della Moda (1932 and 1934 ENM), other state-controlled initiatives, participation in the NYWF (1939) and several laws that for the first time in post-unified Italy were charged with “creating an Italian fashion” and that encouraged, especially in the autarchic phase, the production of smart domestic textiles. Indeed, after the US, Italy became the second world exporter of Rayon, one of these “patriotic” textiles. The textile industry played a major role in the Italian economy during its phase of modernization in the two decades between 1920 and 1940. Italy followed closely the capitalist model common to other European countries and the USA. Both the new textiles and other natural fibers such as silk and the ways in which their propaganda was orchestrated show in concrete terms how the launch of the national brand drew on both innovation and tradition. This is the same combination that will serve for the global launch of Italian fashion in the reconstruction of the post-WWII years.
