Fashion Images and the City of Milan. A Sociological Perspective on Modern Italian Fashion

Modern Italian fashion and the role of Milan as a fashion capital are considered pivotal factors in the development of Made in Italy and they are identified with the diffusion of prêt-à-porter. This is the typology of fashion internationally known and often celebrated as the invention of the designers of 1960-70s. During the course this idea will be analyzed and discussed in order to reconfigure the origins of Italian fashion system: an organization established in the mid-twentieth century and related to a necessity for high-end mass marketing, and thrived on late-century global overconsumption. Practical sessions of research on the field will help detect how the main components of Italian fashion are now intertwined (i.e. adherence to the markings of a rich cultural heritage, an instinctive progression toward the globalization of fashion via various modernist aesthetics, and an ability to reinvent image ideals through advertising and promotion).