If you're in Milan for the local fashion week and want to get away from the relentless rhythms of the shows, but you still want to learn more about the Italian history of fashion, check out the compact event "Stile Milano - Storie di eleganza" (Milan Style - Stories of Elegance) at Palazzo Morando (via Sant’Andrea, 6; until 29th March) .
Rather than revolving just around fashion, the event looks at the connection between clothes and accessories and in particular between refined gowns and jewels from the '50s to our days.
Palazzo Morando Attendolo Bolognini is a historical mansion from the 1700s located in the heart of Milan. Different noble families lived here until 1903.
Ten years ago the palazzo was designated to become the exhibition space for the fashion and costume collection belonging to the municipality of Milan that features a wide variety of designs, all of them donated by local people and most of them exhibited following a rotation schedule.
The donations received span from the mid-1800s to our times and have allowed the municipality of Milan to put together an archive employed by researchers to document the social and fashion history of the city.
"Stile Milano" opens with a look at the tailoring houses and dressmakers' ateliers, often launched by women such as Biki, Jole Veneziani and Germana Marucelli, that started after the '50s.
The creativity of these women and of the dressmakers who worked in their ateliers is compared to the creativity of Milanese jewellery makers - such as Buccellati, Chiaravalli, Cusi, Calderoni, Faraone, Martignetti, Misani, Sabbadini and Pennisi - who designed exclusive pieces for their clients, employing innovative techniques and materials.
The exhibition allows to take a journey through the post-war years, join the '60s revolution and take into consideration the period of social and political turmoil known in Italy as the "years of lead" that extended throughout the '70s.
The excess of the '80s is then explored, while the '90s seem to be a transition period towards a new complex millennium characterised by new global challenges and a completely different fashion scene.
Among the highlights of the event there are extracts from books and features by journalists, fashion critics and commentators including Camilla Cederna, Lina Sotis and Marisa Rusconi, who in their writings always looked at specific fashion and accessories taking into consideration the social, political and economical periods in which they were developed, something we should rediscover to make sure the fashion discourse gets reshifted from insta-trends to more clever writing and criticism.
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