This course number is reserved for special topics courses.

This course focuses on the importance and uniqueness of Italian Fashion in the world and its close relationship with Italian Culture and Art. It examines how fashion has been effective historically 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, it makes use of advertising campaigns, novels, periodicals, and videos from the late 19th century post-unification period to the present and will highlight 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 also addresses contemporary issues relating to the fashion industry, such as black-market fashion production and the search for humanitarian and ethically responsible fashion practices in the history of Italy’s fashion industry to understand how it gained strength and importance in Italian culture.