LONGFORM 1
A NEWSLETTER FROM ANDREA BATILLA
THE SECRET STORY OF MADE IN ITALY
This is an article published in Dust Magazine in 2023, which had limited circulation in Italy, and I’m happy to republish it here for free.
Longform pieces will appear roughly once a month, as they require a very lengthy and complex writing process.
Not even Wikipedia has a proper understanding of what ‘Made in Italy’ means. Firstly, it states that ‘Made in Italy’ is an indication of origin based on non-preferential origin provisions within the European Community. A rather obscure statement that simply signifies that if it's made in Italy, it'll be certified as being 'Made in Italy.' Then it mentions a market study by Statista in the 'Made-In-Country-Index' (MICI, 2017), published by Forbes on March 27th, 2017. It claims that ‘Made in Italy’ is ranked seventh in terms of reputation amongst consumers worldwide. KPMG has also identified ‘Made in Italy’ as the third most recognised brand globally in 2012, following Coca-Cola and Visa. Even this second definition remains vague, as it refers to reputation without precisely defining what this particular object of desire known as ‘Made in Italy’ actually is.
The Italian Treccani Encyclopedia, on the other hand, defines ‘Made in Italy’ as follows: 'An expression used since the 1980s to indicate the international specialisation of the Italian production system in the so-called traditional manufacturing sectors. This definition includes the so-called 4 As: Abbigliamento (clothing and personal goods), Arredamento (furniture and household items), Automotive (including mechanics) and Agroalimentare (food).' While this definition provides more details and some recognition points, it still does not explicitly explain what ‘Made in Italy’ is, its origin, or how the term operates today. It merely identifies the areas to which it belongs.
Still, ‘Made in Italy’ is a globally recognised expression synonymous with creativity, quality, exquisite taste and unparalleled craftsmanship. It carries a prestigious brand image that adds value to Italian-made products, making them highly desirable and commanding higher prices in the market.
The origins of its reputation can be traced back to the post-war period and continue to shape its significance today.
However, the narrative surrounding ‘Made in Italy’ seems fragmented, as a collection of captivating anecdotes and whimsical tales lacking coherence and a sense of continuity.
When Paul Schrader's film American Gigolo was released in 1980, nobody expected it to become a global success. Schrader, an important and engaged screenwriter (known for co-writing the screenplay of Taxi Driver with Scorsese), belonged to a generation of filmmakers known as New Hollywood. They shied away from glossy and mainstream movies, instead portraying a problematic America with strong social tensions. Christopher Reeve, famous at the time for his portrayal of Superman, and John Travolta, fresh from the worldwide success of Saturday Night Fever and Grease, turned down the role because the character was too morally ambiguous and not positive enough. Nevertheless, American Gigolo became an epochal movie, making Richard Gere and Lauren Hutton two of the hottest sex symbols on the planet overnight.
In one of the film's most iconic scenes, Richard Gere gets ready to go out, meticulously picking his outfit from his extensive collection of Giorgio Armani suits. This juxtaposition draws a strong parallel between his erotic charisma, his cynical decadence and the garments of the most 'Calvinistic' of Italian designers. In another scene, Lauren Hutton's character goes on a highly-charged date with Gere, donning a masculine trench coat and a woven clutch from Bottega Veneta, one of the first Italian brands to open a boutique on Madison Avenue.
On April 5th, 1982, Giorgio Armani was featured on the cover of Time magazine, captured by the lens of Bob Krieger, becoming one of the few fashion designers in the history of the publication to receive this honour and the first Italian designer to do so. The contrast between Giorgio Armani, Bottega Veneta and other international fashion brands, particularly between Italian and French designers, was strikingly apparent during this pivotal moment.
First and foremost, a market issue is at play: in 1982, 70% of the orders at Bergdorf and Goodman originated from Italy, while the commercial success of renowned names like Saint Laurent, Givenchy or Dior was on the decline. Armani was exporting clothing to the United States, generating $14 million in revenue and boasting a global turnover of $135 million. At that time, these figures were considered a fortune.
In addition, there is also a second but equally significant aspect to consider. In the remarkable interview with Time—filled with passionate outbursts from Pierre Bergé, Saint Laurent's longtime partner—journalist Jay Cocks (known for his work on the screenplays of Star Wars, The Age of Innocence and Strange Days) clearly defines the reasons behind Armani's success. For the American market, having clothing that had a contemporary and everyday look, coupled with excellent craftsmanship, was an absolute novelty. Before Armani, it was nearly impossible for a man to feel fashionable without appearing ridiculous or overdressed. The challenge was even greater for women.
The story of Bottega Veneta is equally extraordinary and also speaks of understatement. Founded in 1966 in Vicenza by Michele Taddei and Renzo Zengiaro, the brand became renowned for its unique woven leather craftsmanship and the absence of any prominent logos. The first store opened in New York in 1972. Still, it was through Laura Moltedo's ability to cultivate relationships as she took ownership of the company that the brand became desirable. Laura Moltedo frequented Andy Warhol and entrusted him with creating a video showcasing the boutique's opening party. From there, international success was just a tiny step away. In fact, these two examples alone are enough to weave the history of ‘Made in Italy’ into a mythical narrative about creative and solitary individuals who, driven by their brilliance, transformed the world into what it is today.
In actual fact, the matter is much more complex than that. Although it is easier to envision a story filled with Dolce Vita, fashion shows in Capri or in the Sala Bianca of Palazzo Pitti, and Time magazine covers, the history of ‘Made in Italy’ goes back much further, at least to post-war 1946. This phenomenon is deeply intertwined with several factors, most notably Italy's unique industrial structure characterised by its anti-Fordism and emphasis on family values. Additionally, playing a significant role were the interconnection between the Italian and American markets, the political turmoil of the 1970s, the exuberant cultural explosion of the 1980s, and the absence of a preexisting well-established fashion culture. The narrative of ‘Made in Italy’ is driven by the innovative impulses of two distinct periods: the Economic Miracle of the 1960s and 1970s, followed by the era of Craxism in the 1980s, which eventually evolved into Berlusconism in the 1990s.
Historically, while the very concept of fashion in France became intertwined with mechanisms of power, from Louis XIV during the 17th century to Napoleon in the 19th century, the idea of sovereignty was associated with recognition, inclusion, or exclusion and expressed through clothing. A similar phenomenon, with contrasting effects, occurred in England, where a differentiated language of dress for the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie first emerged between the 18th and 19th centuries. In Italy, however, following the flourishing of the Renaissance, the country underwent a slow decline. In 1815, following the Congress of Vienna, Italy was still divided into 14 different states. When Italy was unified in 1861, it found itself as a fragmented country, both metaphorically and practically, with regions progressing at different speeds and culturally dependent on other European nations.
Indeed, it would be inaccurate to suggest a direct continuity between the Florence of Lorenzo the Magnificent and that of Emilio Pucci, despite the Renaissance-inspired prints of the Florentine designer. The Italy that emerged after the Second World War was a country ravaged by poverty, lacking economic resources and burdened by a glorious past that had reduced it to a mere tourist postcard amidst the ruins of the Colosseum and Pompeii.
The first interesting aspect is that the concept of ‘Made in Italy’ does not arise from an innate sense of beauty that Italians possess from birth, nor is it directly linked to Italy's extraordinary artistic and artisanal production throughout history. It rather has more to do with pragmatic choices made during a critical period of economic recovery. When Italy began to rebuild after the war, it chose to invest the substantial financial aid provided by the United States through the Marshall Plan in industries that had suffered less damage from bombings and required less investment in research, allowing them to resume operations quickly. The textile and clothing sector was one of these industries.
In Northern Italy, a textile manufacturing industry existed but was not built upon the concept of standardised production rather than of excellence. Only the regions of Como, renowned for silk processing, and Biella, known for wool production, had a historical continuity dating back centuries. In other areas, the textile and clothing industries had relatively low or non-existent quality standards. However, the situation improved significantly with the injection of American funds, technology, and know-how.
The textile districts of Biella, Como and Veneto were amongst the first to rise from the ashes of the war. They managed to surpass the French and English industries relatively quickly, as the respective governments had chosen to divest from them due to being deemed technologically backward.
Between the 1950s and 1960s, what we now call ready-to-wear did not yet exist, but haute couture, i.e. made-to-measure clothing, was prominent and served as a qualitative benchmark. It led Italian textile companies to pursue excellence rather than standardisation.
The mass production of ready-to-wear garments was essentially an American invention, but it was implemented in Italy in a radically different way. Italian companies could never fully embrace the model of large-scale mass production, primarily due to financial constraints. Instead, they developed an alternative approach characterised by small and medium-sized entities that successfully merged high-volume production with dynamism, continuous adaptability and craftsmanship.
During the 1960s, a unique model emerged when the high-quality standards of haute couture were transferred to these small Italian factories. These factories consisted of skilled seamstresses who had spent their lives sewing at home and possessed a deep understanding of the difference between crepe and satin, as well as owners who aimed at profitability by combining margins with quality. In Italy at the time, it would have been unthinkable to walk around the city centre wearing a coat that didn't drape perfectly.
When Achille Maramotti founded Max Mara in 1951, he understood that skilled workers needed to take certain steps in the production process to avoid giving his coats a cheap appearance. The highly high-quality fabrics and the ability to reproduce artisanal objects in series created an exceptionally fertile ground in the early 1970s. Without this foundation, the ‘Made in Italy’, as we know it today, would never have come into existence.
It is at this point that the fashion designers enter the scene, infiltrating the factories and the market, making the Italian production system even more fluid, open and capable of blending high quality with the possibility of infinite reproductions.
Amongst the numerous figures moving through this primordial universe, one stood out for his imaginative effort to push the entire industry towards previously unknown horizons: his name is Walter Albini.
Albini created the role of catalyst from scratch, the character who spends his days working in a factory and nights dancing in discos—both the tireless worker and the superstar. He created a new type of fashion designer that did not exist before. In an Italy dominated by small, single-product companies, he started a reference model that still resonates today: he became a well-known and beloved figure, filling the pages of newspapers with his fantastical image while pushing manufacturers to unimaginable production efforts. We are miles away from the elitist and aloof model of French haute couture and from the anonymous American mass production. This is a new middle ground, one we can now proudly call ‘Made in Italy’.
The result of this effort is a product that is well-made, creative and much more affordable than its French counterpart while being far more interesting than the American version. ‘Made in Italy’ was consecrated when the American market, the largest in the world at the time, embraced it wholeheartedly. This market realised that it had discovered a product that catered to the aspirations of a middle class eager for fashionable clothing, aiming to embody European standards and enhance their social standing. Department stores flooded with orders not only for Albini but for many of the rising stars of Italian fashion, from Krizia to Missoni, and even lesser-known brands like Callaghan, Genny, Montedoro, or Sicons, who relied on the talents of young designers of the calibre of Gianni Versace and Giorgio Armani.
At this point, around the late 70s, a defined production model existed, and many talented newcomers knew how to follow it. But, before globally unleashing the story of the ‘Made in Italy’ and bringing Franco Moschino, Luciano Soprani, Enrico Coveri, Gianfranco Ferrè and, of course, Armani and Versace onto the stage, one thing still had to be done: to erase the traces of the recent seem as if this Italian supernova had originated from nothing, as a self-produced movement stemming solely from the genius of a few exceptional minds.
In order to rewrite the history of Italian fashion, not only has Walter Albini been erased from history books, but he is no longer even mentioned, attributing to him a reputation for reckless behaviour that is only partially true. Everything that happened from the end of World War II to the early 1980s has been forgotten, and the tale of brilliant solitary fashion designers has become the official narrative—more accessible, more digestible, more romantic and certainly more marketable.
The ‘Made in Italy’ label is no longer perceived as a complex mechanism of which designers are just a singular part but rather as a fortunate cosmic alignment brought about by the innate good taste of Italians, our centuries-old proximity to art and our expertise in craftsmanship.
When in fact, it's exactly the opposite. The Italian production model has such distinctive characteristics precisely because it didn't emerge from any existing model but rather from an economic and cultural void that began in the 19th century and lasted until the end of World War II. In this void, sudden genetic variations occurred, partly due to endogenous factors and exogenous causes, which have just been described. The result was that the concept of ‘Made in Italy’ transitioned from representing cheap and low-quality products to symbolising luxury, quality and creative innovation. However, without the extensive previous experience of companies like GFT in Turin, Genny in Ancona, or Zamasport in Novara, all of this would not have been possible—and Armani would never have been featured on the cover of Time magazine.
Rediscovering the historical roots of the ‘Made in Italy’ phenomenon, which has been largely overlooked in academic studies, should allow us to gain insight into how many of today's issues stem from the lack of attention given to this history. What happened in recent decades is that these companies—the productive substrate of Italian fashion—have not withstood the generational transition and the entry of finance into the luxury sector. They have either faded away or been sold, leaving young designers without reference points. The mechanism has jammed or is perhaps broken, and the attention has shifted from the product itself to the way the product is communicated.
One of the most exciting things lately is that some emerging Italian brands, such as Vitelli or Sheena, seek to reclaim those dynamics by bringing back in-house production and purchasing old discarded knitting or sewing machines. It's as if they are trying to piece together the fragments of a puzzle that someone deliberately destroyed to reclaim a forgotten history.
It is a vital sign of rebirth. However, these currently isolated experiences need economic and cultural support to become part of a structural change. We need to re-examine the origins and characteristics of the ‘Made in Italy’, just as we study Latin and Greek to understand Italian better or study the history of religions to comprehend conflicts in the Middle East. The core of this revival should be a cultural stimulus from institutions, museums, schools, trade associations and individuals, for example, by carefully mapping all the incredible materials that exist in abandoned archives or have never been studied.
The core of our identity resides in history—there where valuable insights for resolving our current problems can be discovered.
