Italy celebrates today the 150th anniversary of its unification.
Despite being happy about it, I'm deeply ashamed by being represented by a clownish Prime Minister and by some members of the Italian Parliament who still conceive Italy as a country essentially divided in two parts, a powerful and wealthy North and a backward and poor South.
Honouring the history of your home country is important, but how can such celebrations be considered as genuine when the politicians who lead the country are a bunch of corrupted comedians who don't really care about the honest citizens they represent, but only think about their personal interests?
Hopefully Italy will soon get out of this nightmare, waking up from the dark days of “Berlusconism”, an invisible illness that badly damaged the country from a cultural and social point of view.
So let's try to look at this important anniversary from a fashion perspective.
Fashion fans keen on joining the celebrations will find quite a few interesting events to satisfy their main passion.
Fashion represents a precise time and society and has a vital role in the history of a country.
In a way fashion contributed to the unity of Italy as the style of Turin, the first Italian capital, influenced the rest of the country.
Defined by its critics as an “old provincial town”, Turin in 1861 was much more similar to enlightened capitals such as Stockholm or Oslo. French fashion remained at the time the main inspiration for the stylish inhabitants who seemed to have a predilection for good taste and elegance.
The locals quickly developed a passion for the theatre, for car races, ice skating and cycling and Turin was soon rechristened the “Capital of Fashion”, thanks to its stylish inhabitants.
In 1961, when Italy celebrated its 100th anniversary, there were already a few events dedicated to fashion, style and design in general, among them also a grand exhibition organised by Giovanni Battista “Pinin” Farina entitled “Moda, Stile e Costume”, that was divided in 5 themes and 12 sections and included art, architecture, design, fashion, ballet, theatre and literature.
Unfortunately this time we don't seem to have any extravagant major events like this one, yet there are some exhibitions looking at fashion, style and costumes that you may find inspiring.
People interested in illustrations should maybe check out the exhibition “La donna immaginata, l’immagine della donna” (The Woman Imagined, the Image of the Woman) on until 30th April in the main offices of Turin's Associazione Piemonte Artistico e Culturale (Piazza Solferino 7).
The event features a selection of images from Italian and French newspapers and magazines from 1860 to 1970 that chronicle the evolution of fashion and of women's roles in society.
The exhibition looks indeed at women and at their emancipation from mothers, wives, mistresses and objects of desire to protagonists of an active society and at their contributions in politics as well.
The evolution of female fashion is also tackled in this event through illustrations (by Dalsani, Teja, Bompard, Girus, Manca, Mazza, Kremos, Belli, De Seta, Barbara, Cavallo, Vera D’Angara and Adriana Bisi Fabbri), caricatures and portraits of famous Italian women including Eleonora Duse, Anna Magnani, Nilde Iotti, Matilde Serao and Ada Negri.
People into costumes should instead check out the exhibition “L'oro e la seta – I più bei costumi del Regio” (Gold and Silk – The Most Beautiful Costumes of the Regio Theatre) at the Museo di Arti Decorative Accorsi (until 26th June).
This event focuses on the costumes of opera heroes and heroines and includes some wonderful pieces such as Stefano Poda's futuristic designs for Massenet’s Thaïs, costumes for Manon Lescaut, Francesca da Rimini, Madame Butterfly, Tosca and Armida (the latter inspired by 17th century costumes of the Savoy court), plus the original costume worn by Spanish soprano Mercedes Capsir in her role as Violetta at the Teatro Regio in 1931 and the stage costumes belonging to tenor Francesco Tamagno, famous for his habit of saving money for restaurants and hotels, but willing to invest all he had on his costumes and on his personal wardrobe (he used to travel with hundreds of trunks full of costumes, wigs, boots, make up and heavy armours like the one for Verdi's Otello).
Further celebrations and exhibitions will be organised in the next few months: “Moda in Italia. 150 anni di eleganza” (Fashion in Italy. 150 Years of Elegance) will launch in July at the Reggia di Venaria Reale (23rd July-11th December 2011).
The event is curated by Italian costume designer and Academy Award winner Gabriella Pescucci (she will focus on the first part of the exhibition that will probably be impeccable since Pescucci knows her history very well) and Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani (who will be looking at the second part of the event that will therefore include designs by her own friends...).
“Moda in Italia” will look at the transformations Italian fashion went through from 1861 on and also analyse the connections between Gabriele D'Annunzio and the Italian Futuristi with fashion and the links between film divas and fashion.
The event will also feature a 1865 black velvet dress from the Tirelli archives that belonged to Virginia Oldoini, better known as the Contessa di Castiglione (Countess of Castiglione).
Guess that, even though this very special anniversary may not help us getting rid of the clowns in power, it will at least help us rediscovering some hidden treasures from our fashion history. By the way, you're all invited to the celebrations, just forgive us if we have a sad comedian as Prime Minister at the moment...
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