Works of Art in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction: ‘The Glamour of Italian Fashion 1945–2014’ at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (5 April–27 July 2014)

Abstract

The mainstream, non-specialist press has not responded favourably to the Victoria and Albert Museum’s spring show, ‘The Glamour of Italian Fashion 1945–2014’, the first of its kind to explore Italy’s unique contribution to fashion from the end of the Second World War to the present day. The exhibition failed to meet the expectations of Zoe Pilger in the Independent, who claims that it ‘features some stunning costumes but is still not dramatic enough to do justice to its glamorous subject’. 1 It is not clear what level of theatrical performance would have fulfilled the needs of a critic in possession of a romantic view of Italy based on a priori notions of Italian pomp and extravagance, but the exhibition was evidently found lacking in its degree of intensity. Pilger credits the exhibition’s curator Sonnet Stanfill with astute and care ful research but criticizes the show for failing to conform to national stereotypes: The narrative is not dramatic enough. It does not do justice to its subject. Italian glamour is glorious for its spectacle, its excess — to our insipid English palettes, its proud OTTness. The tone here is more subdued. 2 Such a reductive notion of Italian cultural identity and of Italy as England’s colourful other suggests that the exhibition was unable to fulfil its role in satisfying the desires of an English intelligentsia for a joyful, exuberant Italy that straddles the boundaries of good taste, that is to say, a taste denoted by simplicity, a muted colour scheme and a sense of restraint and decorum. Jess Cartner-Morley in the Guardian is more sympathetic, understanding the exhibition as the mapping of the passage of Italian fashion from the aftermath of 1 Zoe Pilger, ‘How the V&A’s Glamour of Italian Fashion exhibition fell flat’, Independent, 7 April 2014. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/how-the-vas-glamour-of-italian-fashion