Palazzo Pitti

After we wore out our welcome in Siena, we set out for Firenze on Saturday morning. The line to see Michelangelo's David at the Accademia was absurd (and there was no guarantee that we would get in), so we headed south, crossed the Ponte Vecchio, and paid the entry fee for the Pitti Palace. Hillary and I bought the second ticket option (for ten euro, not too bad), which was good for all of the special exhibits as well as the Boboli Gardens that sprawl out behind the palace.

I enjoyed all of the exhibits (really, it's totally worth the ten euro), but I was most pleasantly surprised to find out that there was a fashion exhibit--Galleria del Costume. No photos were allowed, so you'll just have to believe me that it consisted of women's and men's clothing from the past three centuries, as well as two extra special exhibits: one that showcased buttons (they ranged from functional to artsy to blatantly imperialist to markers of status) and another that featured the burial clothing of two of the Medicis (quite the macabre scene--extremely low light, decomposed dress parts, and codpieces--oh my!). There was a disclaimer at the entrance explained that the focus of the exhibit is the concept of "being in fashion." Also included were some broader questions about humans and dress and the historical and situational constraints that interact with our personal choices of what (not) to wear:

"Being fashionable means following the taste of the time and adapting to the latest novelties. But what room does this leave for personal choices in dress? And to what extent do we really want to distinguish ourselves by what we wear? Does the tailormade garment really succeed in expressing our innermost identity? Finally, what role do the dressmaker and the designer play in our choices?"

These questions speak to the rhetoric of fashion broadly, as well as my specific concern with the rhetoric of fashion in Rome. Fashion is a way of communicating meaning, and is thus rhetorical. As much as what we wear is a choice, it is also a product of interacting economies (be they cultural, political, financial, etc.) and relative systems of power.

(In lieu of photos of the exhibit, I've included a peony from Boboli Gardens above.)