Italiana: Italy through the Lens of Fashion, 1971-2001

Milan is one of the top international fashion capital, and elegance is everywhere as you walk around the city: in the high-end shops, in the businesswomen dressed in black and graciously wearing high heels, in the quiet courtyards of the historic centre.
If your interest in fashion is half as strong as ours, do not miss a new exhibition recently opened at Palazzo Reale: Italiana: Italy through the Lens of Fashion, 1971-2001.

“Italiana” celebrates the Italian fashion system in 3 key decades that shaped the world of today. The starting point, 1971, is the year that symbolically marks the break with high fashion and the beginning of the period of Italian ready-to-wear: in 1971 fashion designer Walter Albini chose Milan for the  first show of his line, and in that same period the women’s liberation movement emerged in Italy.
On the opposite end, 2001 is the year that marks the transition between two centuries, the year of the attacks of 9/11, but also the period when Italian fashion finally became a global phenomenon.

Fashion is a complex, polycentric phenomenon that draws on a whole range of expertise and intelligence, involving such diverse players as designers, industrialists, artists, architects and intellectuals. Industry and art converge into fashion, and in Italiana you will get to know its protagonists. From the industrial production of quality clothing in the 70s to the system centered on the fashion designer that emerged and triumphed over the course of the eighties; from the names and brands that in the nineties shaped a global economy of styles, to the new figure of the creative director.
As the subtitle of the exhibition reads, fashion can be seen as a lens, a key to the understanding of Italy. Fashion reflects the social, political and cultural history of Italy, and “Italiana” will take you on a voyage of discovery of the Italian soul.