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III. 1960: Fashion’s Evolu�on in Italy
III III. 1960: The evolu�on of Fashion in Italy A great historian of Italian fashion, Maria Luisa Frisa, talks about Italy and I will write down her ar�cle: her interview is an excellent premise to the following part, which will deal with the evolu�on of fashion in Italy over the last 60 years seen by the perspec�ve of prof. Alfredo Ma�roli, extremely seasoned Fashion Manager.
Maria Luisa Frisa
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Maria Luisa Frisa Maria Luisa Frisa has always loved fashion and its complexity: she was thirteen when she asked her mother to buy her first Ken Sco� dress. Eclec�c art cri�c, fashion curator, and professor at Venice IUAV University, she argues that fashion is uncomfortable, and needs to be permanently prac�ced. Fashion creates shapes and silhoue�es, it distorts volumes. Fashion finds its defini�on within its �me, and it is way more complex than people think. Born in Venice, she graduated in History of Art in Florence. She started university late, becoming an art cri�c. Then, she met Stefano Tonchi, with whom she founded Westuff Magazine, and there she got into fashion. From that experience, she became consultant for Giorgio Armani, and then it all started.
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She started working in fashion because she understood that fashion is an extraordinary point of view on our �me. She started cura�ng exhibi�ons for Pi� Immagine, and she was called to build the Fashion Course at IUAV, so she moved back to Venice. She realized that university is an extraordinary place because it is not just her teaching, but both students and professors learning. Italian journalist Mar�na Marche� met personally her. Hereto her interview of Maria Luisa:
«I started working at university twelve years ago, and I have now become professor, the highest posi�on at Italian universi�es, which I would have never thought possible. In par�cular, I teach Fashion Cura�ng to postgraduate students, crea�ng a dialogue with them. I never stop studying: so I travel to Rome, Milan, Paris, London to a�end both fashion and art shows. I used to a�end ar�sts’ studios when I was an art cri�c, and now I am interested in visi�ng fashion designers’ ateliers, to understand the processes, and the works by the ar�s�c director. 1 »
Frisa believes that fashion is so powerful, that it influences every individual’s life, crea�ng and spreading style.
«Young people are very o�en fascinated by this world, because fashion is o�en not represented in its complexity but in its simplifica�on. On the contrary, fashion must be handled with much care. It is a system that creates culture, but requires great capabili�es. Fashion requires a strong mindset, because it needs con�nuous quick, great ideas. Just being talented is not sufficient.»
Maria Luisa Frisa’s perspec�ve on fashion originates from her experience with Giorgio Armani, first, as an editor for the Emporio Armani Magazine, and a�er as a consultant.
1 “Love Fashion to Death. Interview with Maria Luisa Frisa”, in Mind Design Magazine, by Mar�na Marche�, 6° November, 2017.
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«I was very lucky to work with Giorgio. There, I understood the complexity of managing a fashion collec�on, in which you do not just have great ideas for a fashion show, but you also need to give a consistent image to all your projects. Armani was one of the first designers to understand this. In par�cular, ‘Emporio Armani’, which has recently been reedited, was a magazine aiming at represen�ng the philosophy behind Giorgio Armani’s fashion. It was there, where I understood that talent needs to be taken care of, it needs to be cul�vated, and can grow if supported by a strong educa�on. Because simply being talented is not enough.»
Besides cura�ng Emporio Armani Magazine, Maria Luisa Frisa has worked on many other publica�ons. “The shapes of fashion –Le forme della moda” is one she is most fond of.
«This book represents my opinion on fashion, and seeks, with no simplifica�ons, to make the readers understand its complexity. It is a book which could not have existed before my experience at IUAV. It is the book which, despite never thinking it possible, gave me the greatest sa�sfac�on. It has been very much appreciated by readers and journalists. Besides, all books start from the need to say something and form an idea: my books do not seek to close a topic, but instead, they open it. We live in a society that tends to simplify everything. Instead of simplifying, we should describe complexity in a comprehensible way.»
Le forme della moda also showcases Frisa’s opinion about Li Edelkoort’s argument that “Fashion is dead”. Maria Luisa Frisa thinks that the statement by the guru Li Edelkoort was meant to be a boutade, used to draw a�en�on on the fashion system and its mechanisms. Frisa believes that the statement has a rela�ve meaning, because it looks at highligh�ng some downsides of high-end fashion. “Those sentences”, Frisa says, “refer to concepts which, today, have totally been surpassed”. Frisa argues that, in the retail sector, the mul� brand stores will never lose their importance.
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«The shop is one of the may sides of fashion. It is essen�al to empower shops, because they have the same func�on as an encyclopedia, which is to fulfill the consumer’s necessity of browsing the items of clothing and trying them on. In par�cular, mul� brand stores should be preferred, because, despite being beau�ful, single brand stores are the same all over the world, while mul� brand stores are the result of a selec�on, therefore are more interes�ng».
Concerning fast fashion, Frisa states that shops such as Zara, Uniqlo, H&M are very useful to understand what customers want. Maria Luisa has a good opinion about fast fashion, because it allows many people to get dressed correctly and honestly with affordable prices:
«Fast fashion has to co-exist with fashion, but it definitely cannot be called fashion. I do not like the behavior of people who, despite having enough spending power to afford the original haute couture fashion item of clothing, buy the fast-fashion versions of it. I find it stupid: if I like a coat by Céline, I buy the Céline coat, not an imita�on, because it would mean I am not interested in fashion. I love fashion to death, I have always loved to get dressed.»
Maria Luisa is a woman who has earned power and respect, demonstra�ng to her collaborators and students the merit of being a hard worker:
«I believe that authority is a consequence of how you work, how you relate to other people, what example you set, and how you get involved in projects: it is something you earn day by day. If you don’t show you are a hard worker yourself, you will never earn authority.»
Frisa created the Fashion Course at Venice IUAV University more than ten years ago, and it is now considered the best fashion course in the country:
«The former Director of the Design and Arts Faculty, Marco de Michelis, invited me to Venice, and told me, ‘you are the person I chose to direct the Fashion course.’ As many �mes before, when I am asked to do something I have never done before, I accept. Because it is a way of growing, because if you keep doing the same things, you do not change.»
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For young people willing to enter the fashion sector, Maria Luisa suggests having an understanding of fashion in the first place, in order to understand whether fashion is only a passion for clothes, or if it derives from a desire of expressing themselves. «Studying fashion, looking at it, understanding it. And having the courage to get involved in situa�ons, because work experiences are truly important. Gian Ba�sta Valli himself had many work experiences, and when he understood it was �me to speak his own language, he progressed in his career. We learn by working and ge�ng involved in experiences, without being afraid of making mistakes and falling. Because failure is an extraordinary way of growing.»
People who work in fashion, like Frisa, need to u�lize a uniform, the same ou�it everyday as a way to iden�fy and simplify things for themselves.
«I consume fashion a lot, at an emo�onal and visual level. Uniforms make things easier. Let’s think of Giorgio Armani or, more recently, Maria Grazia Chiuri; they are always construc�ng, crea�ng, making fashion, but they are s�ll themselves. Even though my signature uniform is a skirt with a black top, I also buy items of clothing I like. I like to buy very peculiar items that are almost objects. For example, I bought the Stockman by Margiela, because it reminds me of De Chirico’ Mannequins. In my opinion, this is fashion, a composi�on of par�cularly meaningful items.»
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In Italy we only talk about high fashion for women, the dress for men was made by tailor made to measure. Women used to go to the dressmaker who bought high-fashion designs in Paris and made a copy for her clients. Indeed, men used to go exclusively to the tailor who made the custom-made suit, the collec�ons that existed were produced in mediocre quan��es and without style, the work was highly ar�sanal and handmade. The world con�nues to move and, as ever, America is the first country that has introduced the automa�on concept in the tex�le industry. Therefore, in America, companies introduced processing chains (Ford also does the same in the automo�ve industry) and tailors become specialized workers (90% of them are Italian emigrants) and the first ready-to-wear collec�ons are born. Merchants in Paris escaped from Poland begin to copy high fashion, making copies in series: thus, the Prêt-à-porter is born, of which the most famous lines are Cacharel, Saint Clair and Hechter. In Italy those years there are companies run by women like Max Mara, Luisa Spagnoli, Happy Fashion, Cova but there are no stylists behind their collec�ons either. From 1960 to 1970: these are very revolu�onary years, in Italy they begin to import the former emigrants who worked in American companies to organize the first Italian companies of clothing for men: Facis, Lubiam, Falco, Pal Zilleri, Corneliani, Nervesa that become the strongest companies in Europe by expor�ng very strongly.
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