In yesterday’s post, we explored Bologna's architectural details, but there's another layer of urban charm that offers unexpected inspiration for fashion: cultural and commercial signage.
These relics of the past can be reimagined as cryptic, slogan-like motifs on T-shirts and accessories, transformed into bold prints or recreated with sequins and crystals for a playful kitsch touch.
Continuing our walk through Bologna, we'll come across numerous well-preserved trade signs, each carrying echoes of the city's commercial history. Early signs relied on pictorial symbols, practical in an era when literacy was limited.
By the 13th and 14th centuries, artisan guilds and merchants set up shop beneath Bologna's distinctive porticoes, marking their businesses with painted wooden panels or wrought iron signs adorned with symbols of their trade. Over time, especially during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, these signs became more elaborate, evolving into intricate works of art. Sign-making remained therefore a collaborative craft, blending the skills of carpenters, carvers, painters, gilders, and ironworkers.
The 19th and early 20th centuries ushered in yet another transformation, with Art Nouveau - known in Italy as Stile Liberty - influencing shopfronts and signage. Curved lettering, floral motifs, and ornate ironwork became defining features of cafés and boutiques, adding an extra layer of elegance to the city's streetscape.
The mid-20th century ushered in a new era of signage, with neon lights illuminating Bologna's streets. Yet, many of the city's more minimalist signs were preserved, standing as both artistic and cultural artifacts. Their typography, color palettes, and graphic motifs continue to inspire, reflecting Bologna's evolving urban identity while also sparking curiosity about the stories behind them.
Take, for example, the sign for Teatro Modernissimo, first a theatre then a cinema that opened in 1915, during a time when Bologna was embracing modernity with new entertainment venues, department stores, and grand cafés. Designed in the elegant Art Nouveau style, this space became a cultural landmark for decades before being restored and reopened for future generations in 2023.
Equally significant are the Albergo Diurno (literally "Day Hotel") signs, which recall a fascinating piece of urban history.
Popular in Italy from the late 19th to early 20th century, these underground public service facilities catered to travelers and locals alike, offering a place to freshen up, get a haircut, or have their shoes shined. Inside, one could indeed find public baths, barbershops, luggage storage and manicure services.
In Bologna, you can still spot the entrance to the Diurno Cobianchi, an establishment founded in 1911 by Cleopatro Cobianchi.
Located beneath the Voltone del Podestà, much like Milan's Albergo Diurno Venezia, it was a stylish underground space featuring Art Deco interiors. It offered the latest comforts with two spacious, elegantly furnished rooms with private toilet cabins, small writing lounges, shoeshine services, a perfumery counter, lockers for storing packages, a telephone booth, and access to fresh drinking water. It also boasted English-style toilets, radiator heating, gas and electric lighting, and electric fans. Though no longer in operation, its signs, crafted in bold, capitalized lettering, stand as subtle yet powerful markers of an era when urban services were designed with both aesthetic care and civic pride. By 1916, three such facilities were already operating in Bologna's city center, with the Cobianchi serving the public until its closure in December 1998.
So, as you wander through Bologna, take a moment to seek out its hidden visual treasures - signs for restaurants, bars, pharmacies, hardware stores, butchers, delicatessens, fish shops, grocery stores, wine shops, hat makers, shoemakers, bakeries, bookstores and barbers. Some are more elegant and elaborate, others minimalist or beautifully weathered with time.
Whether gleaming with restored grandeur or rusted into poetic decay, each sign is a fragment of the city's rich urban fabric. Even the signage embedded in pavements, often unnoticed beneath hurried footsteps, offers unexpected motifs - graphic compositions, typefaces, and textures that can be reinterpreted, as suggested earlier on in this post, in prints, embroideries, and embellishments, bringing the language of the streets into the fabric of fashion.
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