Storia Culturale del Made in Italy [The cultural history of "Made in Italy"] by Carlo Marco Belfanti

Abstract

Reviewed by: Storia Culturale del Made in Italy [The cultural history of "Made in Italy"] by Carlo Marco Belfanti Mattia Bertocco (bio) Storia Culturale del Made in Italy [The cultural history of "Made in Italy"] By Carlo Marco Belfanti. Bologna: il Mulino, 2019. Pp. 258. The term "Made in Italy" refers to a phenomenon whose boundaries, given the complexity of the subject, are blurred and whose definition is not always univocal. Both producers and consumers use this term in many uncontrolled and confusing ways. In recent times, the concept "Made in Italy" has undergone renewed interest as an expression of the desire to set apart Italian products, especially fashion, within a global market. Research on the topic is characterized by two approaches: on the one hand, the economist M. Fortis's work, Made in Italy (1998), traces the power of the term in the production system, and on the other hand, researchers like M. Bettiol connect the success of Italian production to the Renaissance in Raccontare il Made in Italy (2015). Carlo Marco Belfanti's book examines the economic, social, and cultural aspects of Made in Italy and reveals the mechanisms underlying the narratives created around the concept that, over the years, has changed its original meaning. The cultural aspect is flanked by the analysis of a technological development that has led Italy to play a fundamental role in the processing and production of certain product categories: from clothing, to furniture, to design. With the examples of Olivetti and Fiat, design represents the connection between technological development and aesthetics. The first part of the book discusses the Italian Renaissance, which is considered the origin of the "Made in Italy" phenomenon. Discussing the stimuli from architecture, painting, sculpture, and literature, Belfanti introduces the reader to the vivacity of the era and of those first cultural products that determined Italy's success beyond its borders. Theories in the arts, the development of the Italian language, the birth of modern theatre, and books of manners became widely known among the European intelligentsia, which began to identify Italy, and especially Florence, as a business and cultural model. Belfanti outlines, based on a wide range of literature, the expansion of commercial and craft activities from the thirteenth century, and analyzes the export of Italian business models and know-how to other countries. Starting from the seventeenth century, Italy's role changed significantly. While economic decline caused a considerable reduction in exports, the cultural sector proved resilient. This was in part thanks to the Grand Tour, which for the sons of the nobility and merchants, became an obligatory part of their education. It consisted of a trip throughout Europe including extensive stays in Florence, Rome, Naples, and Venice. The second part of the book shows how in the nineteenth and twentieth [End Page 537] centuries, Italy again became an important industrial producer. This was demonstrated at the World Exhibitions, where Italy showcased its artistic craftsmanship, agro-alimentary products, and silk wares. Italy defined its products more by referring to its glorious past, particular climate and landscape, than by the progress of modernity. In the twentieth century, even fashion garments were connected to the past, in order to legitimize, in the eyes of new American buyers, the myth of good taste and Italian fashion as an alternative to the hegemony of Paris. One example is the elegant Renaissance Hall Sala Bianca, in Florence's Palazzo Pitti, where Giovanni Battista Giorgini curated a fashion show for foreign buyers, staged in 1952, accompanied by events that recalled the splendor of the Medici Court. Storia Culturale del Made in Italy is a broad interdisciplinary work, based on in-depth research about the expansion of Italian style. Although the book does not take into account technological and production aspects, it gives a fine historical framework of the phenomenon of Made in Italy. Mattia Bertocco Mattia Bertocco is contract professor at the University of Milan. His main research interest centers around the fashion industry and communication, and his doctoral research is focused on the Italian jeans company Diesel, its communications and archives. Copyright © 2022 The Society for the History of Technology