The history of Italian fashion is a chronological record of the events and characters that marked the Italian fashion through time and impacted the way it evolved into what it is today.
Video History of Italian fashion
Middle Ages
Italian fashion reached its height during the Renaissance. During this time period, art, music, and philosophy were also segments of culture that were flourishing in Italy. Cities such as Venice, Milan, Florence, Naples, Vicenza, and Rome began to produce textiles such as velvet, silk, and wool. Italian fashion became immensely popular and influential across Europe and was a preference for the Medicis in Florence, one of the most powerful families in Italy. Queen Catherine de' Medici of France was considered amongst the most fashionable in Europe.
Italian fashion of the 15th and 16th centuries was influenced by the art of that time, especially by the masterpieces of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Botticelli. Italian designs were well known for their extravagance and their expensive accessories such as velvets, brocades, ribbons, and jewels. In the 1460s, Italian fashion for women changed dramatically, shifting from high-necked gowns and braided hair wrapped around the head to layered v-necks and longer braids. Styles such as gathered and pleated skirts were popular at the time.
Maps History of Italian fashion
Renaissance
During the Italian Renaissance, men wore closely fitted waistcoats underneath pleated overcoats called Giornea, which had wide, puffy mutton sleeves and were often made from brocade. Hats ranging from caps to berets were considered stylish.
Men also typically wore an overcoat called a cioppa. Its lining was a different colour than the main fabric, which was a defining feature of Italian Renaissance fashion. They also wore hose or tights to emphasize their lower bodies. As for masculine hairstyles, anything from short to shoulder-length hair was common. The style was often curled inwards..
Women's dress consisted of fitted garments worn underneath a belted dress, also called giornea. Unlike the men's Giornea, the women's reached the ground and covered their feet. Women's giorneas originally evolved from the houppelande. The skirts were tight around the waist and the lower part of the dress was often pleated. There was also a slit in the frontal part of the dress, and years after this evolved to be on the sides to display the rich undergarments. Underneath the giornea, women wore a gamurra, a high-waisted long dress which could have detachable sleeves. The underdress was a simple linen dress called the camicia.
Men and women would wear outer clothes with detachable, and often slashed, sleeves of varied designs. Rich people would own many different pairs of sleeves to match with their overcoats and dresses.
The Renaissance was a turning point on people's attitude regarding clothes and their appearances. People had a desire to wear tighter fitting clothes to emphasize body shape, particularly in men's clothing. Merchants expanded the market for items of clothing, creating accessories such as hats, hairnets, bags, or gloves to complement the traditional outfits. The widespread use of mirrors that was popular in the Renaissance interior design and architecture, influenced people on growing an interest in their self-image and thus fashion.
Women's Hairstyles
- Lenza: Leather chord worn around the head to keep a woman's hair flat.
- Trinzale: Sheer hair-net worn at the back of the head, sometimes beaded.
- Coazzoni: Hair that was centre-parted and smoothed to the head with a long braid at the back; ribbons or netting was added.
- Hair tapping: Uses long strips of ribbon to secure the hair and tied it into a bun.
Women during the Italian Renaissance also used wigs and false braids to tie onto their hair.
Men's Hairstyles
It was common in the 16th century to have a clean-shaven face along straight or crimped bob. Deep/long bangs of natural hair silk wigs were fashionable as well. Francois I (1515-1547) imposed the trend of short hair and beards in the Italians and the Swiss, after accidentally cutting his hair. In the 1560s, starch was invented and people started to starch their beards. From 1570s-1590s, men brushed their front hair up off the forehead. For elegant events or occasions, men wore wigs in order to conceal their baldness. They would wear tilted berets attached to a wig instead of a coif. Wigs were made out of real hair.
Men's Headdresses
Venetians wore pileus, biretta or bonnet. The bonnet is a small, round or squared, unbrimmed cap that was usually red or black in felt or velvet. It was unadorned and sometimes pinched in at the four corners. Slight variations in the bonnet's style were visible amongst the different social classes and professions; for church officials and university professors, the cap had four corners or the sign of the cross. For a doctor of divinity, the cap had three corners. The cornered cap evolved into today's square trencher or mortarboard university hat.
In the first half of the 16th century, the flat cap or beret was a popular headdress. It was often worn over a velvet coif or gold cord net, and sometimes attached to a wig. Caps for daily use were made out of cloth, while fancier bonnets were made out of luxurious materials like felt, velvet, satin, taffeta, scarceness (a thin silk), and straw in the summer. The decorations used for the beret were usually white, in untrimmed ostrich, peacock, marabou and wool imitation, and plumes. In the spine, they would sew feathers held with jewelled sockets with spangles and jewels. Brooches with sacred motifs were also used for decoration. Minute gold ornaments in gold bowknots, rings and buttons were sewn to the underside of the brim.
Use of Colour in Clerical Dress
Prior to the 1500, the clerical dress was arbitrary. However, by a decision taken in 1565 in Milan, black became the accepted colour in Italy. While white remained as the pope's biretta colour, scarlet was accepted by the Cardinals, purple by the bishops, and black by the clerics.
Decline
In the 17th century, Italian fashion fell into a decline while the designs of the Spanish, English and French courts took the lead in the industry. In Europe, French fashion became the most popular.
Despite this decline, there was still some fashion and clothing activity, especially in Rome, Milan, and Florence. In the mid-19th century cheaper silk was imported to Milan from Asia, because the pest phylloxera infestation damaged the silk and wine production in Italy. Subsequently, further land was taken over by industrialization. Textile production was followed by metal, mechanical, and furniture manufacturing.
Some of the first Italian fashion houses such as Bulgari, Prada, Gucci, and Ferragamo were founded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that Italian fashion retook its position of importance in the fashion world.
Revival
On 12 February 1951, the Italian businessman Giovanni Battista Giorgini held a fashion show in Florence, as he wanted to re-make Italy the international trendsetter for designs. Prior to his 1951-53 soirées, Italy had been exporting luxury fashion goods and handbags to other nations and the USA. His fashion shows were a huge success, and saw the possibility of Italy returning to its original position. In the 1960s, the designer handbags produced by Gucci drew the attention of numerous stars and celebrities, such as Grace Kelly, Peter Sellers, Audrey Hepburn and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and Gucci's "GG" monogram logo became synonymous with Hollywood chic. The American First Lady Jackie Kennedy became a close friend of the Italian designer Valentino Garavani, and was well known for having worn his clothes ever since 1965, and at her marriage to Aristotle Onassis. Even though Florence was Italy's fashion capital in the 1950s and 1960s, Milan led the way in the 1970s and 1980s, with then-new labels, such as Versace, Armani and Dolce & Gabbana opening up and setting up their first boutique Emporia. Until the 1970s, Italian fashion was mainly designed for rich and famous people, more or less like the French "Haute Couture". Yet, in the 1970s and 1980s, Italian fashion started to concentrate on]] ready-to-wear clothes, such as jeans, jumpers, and miniskirts. Milan became more affordable and stylish for shoppers, and Florence was deposed of its position as the Italian fashion capital. In the 1990s, also, new clothing labels, such as Miu Miu and Geox, started to appear around the world. Today, and during that period, many famous celebrities, such as Beyoncé, Axl Rose, Elton John, Naomi Campbell, Elizabeth Hurley, Lady Gaga, Victoria Beckham, Madonna, Britney Spears, Rihanna, Alexandra Burke, Christina Aguilera, and even Diana, Princess of Wales, are or were famous clients of numerous Italian fashion brands, such as Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci and Versace.
Today, Milan and Rome are Italy's fashion capitals, and are major international centres for fashion design, competing with other cities such as Tokyo, Los Angeles, London, Paris and New York. Also, other cities such as Venice, Florence, Naples, Vicenza, Bologna, Genoa, and Turin are important centres. The country's main shopping districts are the Via Montenapoleone fashion district and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele (Milan), Via dei Condotti (Rome), and Via de' Tornabuoni (Florence).
References
External links
- Fashion plates of 1930s Italian menswear from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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