This course examines contemporary Italy’s fashion industry in order to understand how it gained strength and importance in Italian culture from the post-WWII period to the present. The course will analyze how fashion has been effective as a communication system that has represented the development of Italian national identity and in turn has had considerable impact on Italian society and culture. Interdisciplinary in nature, the course highlights the close connection between the massive presence of art in Italy and its influence on the development of a collective sense of aesthetics that finds confirmation in fashion. The course will also address contemporary issues relating to the fashion industry, such as black-market fashion production and the search for a humanitarian and ethically responsible fashion practices.

*Course content subject to change