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Abstract
Amidst the wide array of women's magazines published in Italy in the 1930s, Lei. Rivista di vita femminile presents a compelling case study of the make-believe effect achieved through fashion and the allure of the silver screen. Published by Angelo Rizzoli between 1933 and 1938, Lei stands out for a cosmopolitan, American-looking lifestyle that champions an Italian ‘new woman’, aware of her own new image and enmeshed in a fantastic world of romantic novels and movie stars. This essay studies the paradoxes and complexities of an Italian illustrated periodical promoting the image of a fashionable woman in the midst of growing imperialism and autarchy, and publishing the work of Leica photographers, Lucio Ridenti and Paul Wolff in particular. Lei reflects the fundamental ambivalence of this time, promoting Italian fashion through Hollywood as a way to counteract the French fashion industry, and inviting women to role-play through the allure of their image.
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank several individuals who were helpful in gathering information for this article: at the Centro di Documentazione RCS in Milan, Cristina Bariani introduced me to the resources of the Rizzoli magazines and photo archive, and Sonia Orlandi contributed with visuals that were useful to my study; at the Archivio Storico Olivetti in Ivrea, Marcella Turchetti shared ideas regarding Olivetti advertising campaigns and put me in touch with Massimo Durando, nephew of Maria Grassis. I also thank Anna Boggeri and Bruno Monguzzi for sharing information on the Studio Boggeri in Milan.
Notes
1 This information is drawn from conversation with Massimo Durando, the nephew of Maria Grassis. As he explained, Maria Grassis was a very tall, blonde, and German-looking young woman working in the Olivetti factory. She was shy and rather annoyed when she found out that she had become the public face of publicity. Maria never married and she retired from Olivetti in 1971.
2 The Olivetti publicity office was established by Adriano Olivetti in via Clerici, Milan, in 1931, under the direction of Renato Zveteremich, and drew expertise from newly created graphic design offices such as Studio Boggeri (starting in February 1933). Schawinsky worked for the Studio Boggeri in Milan and thus received the Olivetti commission (see Vinti Citation2007). In other advertising campaigns such as Cinzano and Illy, Antonio Boggeri provided Schawinsky with photographs that were taken in his studio (see Bianchi Citation2007–2008). The photographer of Maria Grassis's portrait is unknown – most likely, a commercial studio based in Ivrea. I was not able to find any information regarding this photo-shoot in the Olivetti archives.
3 My thanks to Anna Boggeri, who informed me that the hands of the Olivetti girl were drawn from a photograph of Antonio Boggeri's secretary and soon-to-be wife.
4 There were two sizes for this calendar: 54 × 34 cm and 33 × 22 cm.
5 The character of the typist recurred in short stories and rubrics of Novella, Piccola and Lei throughout the 1930s. Lei featured a photograph of typist on the cover of its 12 March 1935 issue. Piccola includes the voice ‘Dattilografa’ in the rubric Enciclopedia della donna moderna, on 29 June 1934. Significantly, Piccola launched a contest for the prettiest typist in January 1929 and, later on, it reported the results of another contest for the best typist, launched at Dopolavoro Olivetti at the end of April 1938. It is also worth noting here that Elsa Merlini posed for an Olivetti ad, which was published in Almanacco Letterario Bompiani in 1935.
6 The change of title was due to the politics of the regime that demanded that the Italian voi replace the Spanish form lei. Even though the meaning of Lei referred to a generic ‘She’, Fascist censorship demanded a change. This narrative could also suggest that the regime was uncomfortable with the message of Lei magazine, and wished to change its identity.
7 See the excellent summary on female magazines published during the regime by Rita Carrarini (Citation2003). Between 1920 and 1945, this author counts fifty-two new titles published only in Milan.
8 On female emancipation in Italian illustrated magazines of the 1930s, see also Passerini (Citation1991).
9 Earhart is on the cover of Lei twice, on 22 January 1935 and on 13 July 1937 (the second time in commemoration of her disappearance). On Earhardt, see Lubben (Citation2011).
10 Borletti had initially purchased the Magazzini Bocconi in Milan. Following a big fire, he renamed them La Rinascente, according to Gabriele D'Annunzio's idea (see Mazzuca Citation1991, 33–35).
11 On Brin, see De Grazia (Citation1992) and Boscagli (Citation1995).
12 Research is in progress to determine the editorial strategies of these magazines. Most editors were writers and were partly involved with cinema. Among them were Enrico Cavacchioli, Cesare Zavattini, Giuseppe Marotta, and Mario Buzzichini. My thanks to Silvia Magistrali, who has shared information on many of these editors.
13 See also Frizot and de Veigy (Citation2009). An attentive examination of photographs published in the Rizzoli magazines (Il secolo illustrato, Il secolo XX, Lei) reveals that they were drawing from agencies in touch with VU, in France.
14 The article was titled ‘Arnaldo Mussolini traccia le vie del giornalismo illustrato’ and was written in the form of a letter, to the editor, Enrico Cavacchioli.
15 Gnoli notes that, since 1934, a few fashion periodicals omitted names of foreign designers, in order to enhance the national product. This could also be an explanation for Lei, where most of the featured clothes were of French manufacture (a manufacture that was otherwise acknowledged in La Donna).
16 Mentions of the presence of Hollywood in Italian fashion are numerous in the magazines of this period. See also Gnoli (Citation2000, 50), who reports an article in Lidel from 1934, “L'influenza del cinematografo sulla moda”.
17 Pseudonyms are recurrent in all these magazines. Hermes could be Cesare Zavattini, who covered rubrics on film.
18 Ester Lombardo was the founding editor of the magazine Vita femminile. Rivista italiana della moda that applied similar strategies to Lei, drawing images from the American film industry (see Gnoli Citation2000, 94).
19 L'Unione Naturisti Italiana was founded in 1930 and its participants exercised in the vast natural park of Torrazza, near Milan, and by a beach colony at Cesenatico (see Renda Citation1935).
20 See Marchi (Citation1938, 5); and ‘Made in USA. Piccola Enciclopedia delle cose completamente inutili’ in Lei, 15 March 1938, p. 11.
21 Such a diaristic approach, in which individual women tell their wishes, always conforming to the regime's values, recurs also in Piccola in 1938 (see e.g., Lea's article ‘Quello che le ragazze sognano’ in Piccola, 15 March 1938).