We all dress up to affirm our identities, express our ideas, or even show our opinion about something (think about slogan shirts or about a specific colour or accessory used as a symbol to dissent or show our support towards a specific cause). A strong will to affirm one's individuality also characterises people who rebel to oppressive regimes.
Today it is Liberation Day in Italy, a public holiday in which the country celebrates the end of Nazi-fascism during the Second World War, and it is therefore apt to look at the meaning of certain garments or symbols employed by the partisans.
Photographic and historical essays about this topic show images of partisans wearing scarves in the style of pirates or attaching to their bandoleers useful objects and lucky charms as well such as horseshoes.
Emblems or symbols such as red stars and hammers and sickles were also rather popular and at times they were used to decorate hats or scarves. The latter were often embroidered with slogans, with the nickname of the wearer or with the initials of the women who made the scarves.
A lot of partisans were low on resources but high on resourcefulness and opted for jackets made with animal skins, camouflage tarpaulins or blankets.
Accessories included all sorts of sturdy boots and shoes, but also hats in different styles. Scarves were donned around the neck or under the shoulder straps of shirts. The men's wardrobe was more eccentric, while women opted for more functional pieces.
Partisans had a hard time getting uniforms and supplies first and foremost because of limited resources, but also because manufacturers were scared of producing clothes for them.
Partisans only had clandestine relations with manufacturing companies and in some cases they came up with logos and symbols that looked like unusual variations of symbols adopted by the Germans.
Some groups of partisans used for example a patch with an alpine star that looked similar to the one of the German mountain troops, but featured some variations when it came to colours and to the number of leaves around the edelweiss.
This meant that the manufacturer producing it may have justified the symbol and the slight differences (if anybody had ever noticed them) attributing them to a Wehrmacht branch, avoiding in this way any problems with the authorities.
As time passed, though, some partisan groups managed to turn from bands into more organised armies.
Even though emblems, medals and ribbons were still added to the uniforms to customise them (partisan leaders encouraged to lose them to look more credible), the clothes were eventually unified to show people the fighters were part of a structured organisation.
Ordinary clothes were useful to avoid getting noticed, but uniforms gave indeed the impression this was a proper army.
As for women their looks often combined a dress or separates with men's jackets, coats and boots (think about Ada Gobetti or Eva Colombo), but trousers matched with a knitted top (most of them were obviously handmade by the families of the partisans) were also very popular (they were favoured for example by Rosetta Solari and Anna Marengo) and proved handy for women fighting on the mountains or riding bicycles.
Yet partisan women didn't only look for equality in clothes, but in roles: Elisa Oliva stated she joined the partisans to fight and not to look for a boyfriend, fighting against the Nazi-fascists meant for her and for the other women being equal with men.
And while fashion is maybe an ephemeral and superficial way to look at the Second World War and at partisans, it is still another way to study history and in this case to remember those who fought against fascism and who can be an inspiration in today's battles against the current far-right's rise.
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