Exploring the marriage between fashion and ‘Made in Italy’ and the key role of G.B. Giorgini

ABSTRACT

The first high fashion show organized in Florence in 1951 represented an important event for the development of the Italian fashion sector, increasing the importance of the fashion industry in international trade. Research in economic business history has identified this period as crucial for the advent of the ‘Made in Italy’ label. The article aims to understand if and how the high fashion shows organized in Florence between 1951 and 1967 influenced the emergence of the Italian fashion industry and the concept of ‘Made in Italy’. Supported by data collected from the historical archive ‘Italian Fashion Archive of Giovanni Battista Giorgini’ and three online archives of digitalized books and newspapers, the analysis sheds light on the perception of the national and international press on the cultural phenomena of Italian fashion and ‘Made in Italy’. Results reveal an increasing trend in the frequency of terms related to the Italian fashion industry coinciding with the years of the Florentine events. The analysis evidences the crucial role of the entrepreneurial activity of Giovanni Battista Giorgini, buyer and organizer of the first Italian high fashion show in Florence, for the emergence of the Italian fashion industry and ‘Made in Italy’.

KEYWORDS:

• Fashion industry
• made in Italy
• Giovanni Battista Giorgini Archive
• Ngram
• textual analysis

SUBJECT CLASSIFICATION CODES:

• (JEL): R11
• L67

Acknowledgment

Authors express their gratitude to Dr. Neri Fadigati for the concession to consult and collect the data from ‘Italian Fashion Archive of Giovanni Battista Giorgini’, held in the State Archive of Florence, and to Dr. Federica Pennacchio for the collection of the data and some data elaboration.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Documentation of the Italian Fashion Archive of Giovanni Battista Giorgini, State Archives of Florence, Album 42 n. 82, article by Mattina N., Florence new capital of world thanks to G.B. Giorgini, The Italian News, 1959.

2 Documentation of the Italian Fashion Archive of Giovanni Battista Giorgini, State Archive of Florence, Album 44, correspondence to the Italian Embassy, addressed to the Italian Fashion Authority of Turin, to the Roman High Fashion Center in Rome and to the Center for Italian Fashion in Florence, January 25, 1961.

3 Documentation of the Italian Fashion Archive of Giovanni Battista Giorgini, State Archives of Florence, Album 30, article by Austin J., interview with Giovanni Battista Giorgini, The father of fashion, February, 1960.