Fashioning Submission: Documenting Fashion, Taste and Identity in WWII Italy Through Bellezza Magazi

This study reveals how Bellezza shaped a new Italian woman through fashion's utopian, culturally defining vision.

Unlike in the United Kingdom and France, where fashion during the Second World War is extensively debated, in Italy it is an under researched topic, and the behind-the-scenes history of the fashion magazine "Bellezza" - the Italian "Vogue" -, launched in 1941, has never been submitted to scholarly attention; even though its utopian function in defining a new culture of fashion and code of glamour contributed to the totalitarian project of building a 'new Italian woman'. The current volume aspires to fill this gap, using the case of "Bellezza" as a kaleidoscope for looking through Italian history and culture, drawing on new primary sources and extraordinary iconography.