In the course of the twentieth century, Italy succeeded in establishing itself as one of the world's preeminent fashion capitals, despite the centuries-old predominance of Paris and London. This book traces the story of how this came to be, guiding readers through the major cultural and economic revolutions of twentieth-century Italy and how they shaped the consumption practices and material lives of everyday Italians. In order to understand the specific character of the ¿Italian model,¿ Emanuela Scarpellini considers not only aspects of craftsmanship, industrial production and the evolution of styles, but also the economic and cultural changes that have radically transformed Italy and the international scene within a few decades: the post-war economic miracle, the youth revolution, the consumerism of the 1980s, globalization, the environmentalism of the 2000s and the Italy of today. Written in a lively style, full of references to cinema, literature, art and the world of media, this work offers the first comprehensive overview of a phenomenon that has profoundly shaped recent Italian history.

Emanuela Scarpellini is Professor of Modern History at the University of Milan, Italy. She is the author of several books, including Material Nation: A Consumer's History of Modern Italy (2011) and Food and Foodways in Italy from 1861 to the Present (Palgrave, 2016).

1. The Cultural Significance of How We Dress.- 2. The Fashion of the New Italy (1945-1965).- 3. Flashback: Fashion and the Black Shirts (1920-1945).- 4. Revolutionary Fashion (1965-1975).- 5. The Democratization of Luxury (1975-1995).- 6. The Challenges of the Twenty-First Century (1995-Today).