ABSTRACT
The historiography on women’s work until recently has almost completely neglected the role of women as entrepreneurs, both internationally and in Italy. My article focuses on Anita Pittoni (Trieste, 1901–1982), whose activity as an entrepreneur seems to me to be particularly significant. Pittoni developed her handicraft activity in the fields of textiles and fashion. In her workshop, established in 1928, she created clothes and clothing accessories, furnishing elements, tapestries, and woven carpets, using all kinds of materials. Her creations were simple but also precious, sometimes made in combination with each other, making extensive use of nazionali yarns as well as synthetic fibers or plant-based fibers. The techniques she learned at home from her mother were combined with an original artistic talent that developed as a result of the numerous contacts she made in her youth with personalities of the most advanced art, first in Trieste and then in Milan and nationally. Her career was interrupted during the Second World War, only to resume briefly from 1947 to 1948, after which legislation on home-based businesses prevented her from carrying out her profession due to high taxation and the precarious socio-political context in Trieste.
