Fatto in Italia: Refashioning Italy

Tiziana Ferrero-Regis

doi:10.5130/portal.v5i2.707

Abstract

This article discusses how the Made in Italy brand helped Italy to recover from economic recession in the 1980s, but also how it redefined the country's identity after the traumatic years of terrorism and especially after the murder of the Christian Democratic Party Secretary, Aldo Moro, at the hands of the Red Brigades. In this period cinema as a form of artistic achievement declined, while fashion and industrial design moved at the centre stage of economic and creative success. The rampant consumerism of the 1980s, fuelled by tax reforms that favoured a wider urban middle class, the retreat of unionism, the abandonment of collective bargaining in many industrial sectors, industrial restructuring with the consequent growth of black market economy in the provincial areas of the so-called Third Italy first and the South later, were all factors that contributed to a social and economic shift within Italy itself. Commercial consumption, propagated by the proliferation of local commercial television networks, hedonism and a re-articulation of identity through appearance replaced the 1970s' political activism and ideological opposition to fashion. Ultimately, 'Made in Italy' was a multidimensional phenomenon that presented itself as a new cultural model for the country’s political tribes of the 1970s.

Highlights

The emergence of the ‘Made in Italy’ brand in the early 1980s had two functions
This article explores the ways in which the rise of Italian fashion design in the 1980s, through the successful branding and marketing of ‘Made in Italy,’ was central to the economic and cultural rebranding of Italy within the country itself
In the mid-1970s the centre of Italian fashion shifted from Florence and Rome to Milan, which became the major staging ground for Italian ready-to-wear collections and simultaneously for haute-couture

Summary

Introduction

The emergence of the ‘Made in Italy’ brand in the early 1980s had two functions. First, it helped industrial reorganisation based on technological restructuring, flexible specialisation and high-quality manufacturing for export, and second, it redefined a shattered national identity away from political engagement towards rampant consumerism. The Craxi government was fundamental in putting ‘Made in Italy’ at centre stage, substituting cinema with fashion and design both as cultural industry and as points of reference for artistic research.

Results

Conclusion