In November, Professor Chiara Faggella, who teaches Italian Fashion and Food Stories and the design course Bellissima! Unraveling the Threads of Italian Fashion, was invited to be featured at an event at the Accent Global Learning Florence Study Center to present her book, Becoming Couture: The Italian Fashion Industry after the Second World War, published by Manchester University Press. The roundtable was organized as a joint collaboration between Università degli Studi di Firenze and Accent Global Learning.
Using Faggella’s book as a starting point, the participants – Isabella Martini (University of Florence, moderator), Mariarosa Mettifogo (Accent Global Learning), Fabio Corsini, Dafne Mazzanti, and Francesca Passeri (Accent Global Learning) – and Faggella discussed how Italy’s postwar fashion industry evolved into the global powerhouse we know today.
Among the many topics covered they tackled the role of celebrity culture and cinema in advancing the cause of Italian style in postwar years, but also the role of professional intermediaries that work behind the scenes and aid the more famous designers in creating their signature looks, ending with a lively debate the effectiveness of the label Made in Italy today and how to best help our international students understand the specificities of the Italian fashion system, between past and present.