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.)

Shopping in Rome

View from second floor of La Rinascente.

Fashion is quite obviously tied into consumerism; clothing choice is (potentially) a manner of self-expression as well as a marker of social/socioeconomic class. Although the concept of the department store may present itself as universal (or we might perceive it as such), there are different dynamics in the places where consumption occurs, even within the seemingly homogenous realm of department stores.

Today I visited two department stores in Rome and observed evidence of these differences-UPIM and La Rinascente. UPIM "[offers] moderately priced medium quality clothes and a variety of household goods," whereas La Rinascente "[is] good for ready-to wear clothes . . . household linens, and haberdashery, and [has] well-stocked perfume counters" (Wild 335). The differences in clientele are not easily observable (to be discussed in a future post!), however, the aesthetics and geographies of the two stores reveal quite a lot (also points for further posting). A quick scan of the chains' respective websites demonstrates what I would characterize as their "accessible" versus "sophisticated" atmospheres. Specifically, see the "About Us" section of La Rinascente site and "Discover the New UPIM" on the UPIM site for the ways in which the stores have posited their respective "missions" and who their target customers (audiences) are.

Wild, Fiona ed. Eyewitness Travel: Rome. London: Dorling Kindersley, 2007.

Roman Fashion and Rhetoric

One topic area that I have chosen to reflect upon in this blog is Italian fashion. Fashion as a visual rhetoric is not limited to the "art" pieces that are sent down the runway. Although designer names may enter into my discussion of fashion-specifically, Roman fashion-I intend to focus on clothing as rhetoric for inhabitants of Rome, especially as it relates to their daily lives and constraints, or lack thereof, that it places on fashion choices. In addition, I am interested in how Roman fashion might compare with an American (U.S.) conception of what is fashionable and what functions fashion serves. Below are a couple of links with more information and commentary on historical and contemporary functions of and perspectives on Roman fashion.

• Roman Fashion Yesterday
• Italian Fashion Today