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Eugenia Paulicelli. Fashion under Fascism: Beyond the Blackshirt. Dress, Body, Culture Series. Oxford: Berg, 2004. Pp. xii + 227.
The premise for Paulicelli's book, the first scholarly study on fashion and fascism in the English language, is that fashion is both a serious matter and a business (5). By this Paulicelli means that the theoretical implications of any discourse on fashion must be taken seriously, and that any analysis of such a discourse must be firmly based in the historical and material context of the period examined. As this combination of theoretical inquiry and historical materialist grounding suggests, Paulicelli's study is a significant contribution to the field of Italian cultural studies. For students and scholars interested in fascism and/or gender studies it will no doubt be required reading for some time to come because it shows how fashion was a crucial modality for the articulation of national identity under the regime, and it reveals in particular the extent to which the regime invested ideologically and economically in women's fashion.
Another important asset of this book is the stunning variety of primary texts from the fascist period that it discusses: articles from popular magazines directed at a female audience; short stories by Gianna Manzini, Anna Banti, and Alba De Cespedes published in these women's magazines (many of which to this day have not been included in anthologies or translated); the in-house magazine of the Rinascente department store; the writings of dressmaker and fashion-industry pioneer Rosa Genoni; feature films like Alessandro Blasetti's La confessa di Parma and Mario Camerini s / grandi magazzini; an Istituto Luce documentary entitled La grande adunata délie forze femminili; and Cesare Meano's voluminous Commentario dizionario italiano della moda. Moreover, the presentation of these primary texts is complemented by numerous plates of drawings, photographs, advertisements, and film stills. Finally, the book concludes with an oral history: Paulicelli's interview of Micol Fontana, a renowned fashion designer who talks about working under the...