DRESSCODES 10
Fashioning Submission Through Bellezza Mensile dell’alta moda e di vita italiana
This research is the hidden never-before-told story of Bellezza Rivista mensile dell’alta moda e di vita italiana, the first Italian high fashion magazine launched by Ente Nazionale della Moda (National Fashion Agency) and Gio Ponti in 1941 – while war was raging in Europe – who hated Paris and wanted to conquer the world. According to Mussolini, Bellezza had to be a paper showcase of Italian alta moda, emanation of the fascist empire and its will to power. Among other places, it was inside the pages of Bellezza that the process of the “politicization of aesthetics” identified by the historian Emilio Gentile took shape in Italy. This research is a history of fashion and, specifically, of fashioning Italian women through Bellezza during WWII.
