Updated April 3, 2014 11:38 p.m. ET
London
Italian fashion may seem all about wearing Dolce & Gabbana while living La Dolce Vita. A new exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum shows a less glamorous side, from postwar economic reconstruction to the factories that function as the backbone of a major industry.
The show, "The Glamour of Italian Fashion 1945-2014," features plenty of dresses by famous designers like Valentino, Prada and Versace. But curator Sonnet Stanfill went beyond the clothing to explore how Italian fashion emerged and thrived by responding to the modernization of dressing.
Thanks to a web of local manufacturing, Italians helped the elite adapt from made-to-measure clothing to off-the-rack styles. "American designers did it too," says Ms. Stanfill. "But Italians did it better."
The retrospective, which runs from April 5 to July 27, offers a deep look at clothing as a cultural and economic force—an angle often missing from the recent spate of museum fashion exhibits.
The show opens with two ladies' suits from the early 1940s, set against a photo backdrop of Florence in ruins. After Word War II, the U.S. pushed its large stocks of raw cotton on the Italian fashion industry, which was trying to rebuild. Italian designers such as Emilio Pucci used the fabric to make casual clothes and sportswear, helping to position Italian fashion as a more wearable alternative to the Parisian couturiers.
One Italian emerged as the industry's cheerleader: Giovanni Battista Giorgini, a former buyer, rallied several Italian designers to put on a fashion show together in his living room in Florence in 1951. Photos, correspondence, video footage and a few dresses document his semiannual Sala Bianca fashion presentations, which snowballed in importance during the 1950s.
By the 1960s, Italy's go-go years, Rome had become Europe's answer to Hollywood. Long-forgotten design houses such as Sorelle Fontana and Fernanda Gattinoni dressed Audrey Hepburn and Ava Gardner, on-screen and off. The parallels between celebrity culture 50 years ago and the present day are evident in the paparazzi shots of Audrey Hepburn shopping for shoes at Salvatore Ferragamo.
Fashion exhibitions have become a major draw in the museum world of late—an Alexander McQueen show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2011 pulled in more than 660,000 visitors, one of the Met's most popular exhibitions of any kind.
Sponsorship of such shows has been a topic of debate lately following a series of recent fashion exhibits at museums. Although artists don't sponsor their own exhibitions, it has become common for fashion and luxury companies to fund shows including their own works.
Italian jeweler Bulgari, the headline sponsor of the new Italian fashion exhibition, seems to have limited influence at the London show. The company has only three baubles in the comprehensive exhibit.
Ms. Stanfill says her interpretation of Italian style wasn't influenced by the storied Roman jewelry house. She defines the show's style as "'sprezzatura'—an Italian word I have come to rely on meaning nonchalant elegance, comfort in your own skin," says Ms. Stanfill. The cover photo for the exhibition, a 1991 Gianfranco Ferré ad showing a woman in a wide-collared white blouse and black trousers throwing her head back in laughter, encapsulates this.
The exhibition relies on designs from many Italian houses that appear eager to be included. Contemporary labels such as Miu Miu and Dolce & Gabbana donated several gowns in the final room of dresses, which celebrates the cult status of current designers. But the most insightful pieces come from the older archives.
An entire room is dedicated to the textile craftsmanship and industrial structure behind Italian fashion. One display shows how Walter Albini, whose company doesn't exist anymore, developed his prints with Milanese design house Etro, a window onto the designer's creative process. A map illustrates the area of expertise in four different regions of Italy, such as silk from Como.
The show closes with video interviews of several prominent Italian figures reflecting on "Made in Italy." The industry is struggling, with some brands bought by foreign owners and many small manufacturers going out of business. But the same defiantly entrepreneurial spirit that launched Italian fashion after World War II remains.
"Fashion in the end, it's not art but it's a cultural way to see the moment in which you live," says Franca Sozzani, editor in chief of Vogue Italia.
Write to Christina Passariello at christina.passariello@wsj.com
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