Janus Faced: The Postmodern Identity of M ade in Italy

One issue raging through the sar tor ial stratosphere r ight now is the Made in I taly controversy, and it hinges around one central question: I f a product is not physically sourced and constructed in I taly, why does the tag say it is? What seem s like a fairly cut and dry question actually cuts quite deeply, with I talian luxury heavy hit ters l ike Prada, Gucci, and Arm ani st i tching the fam ous Made in I taly tag inside garm ents outsourced for production, pr im ar i ly to China. I f we cut i t down to sim ple verbage, the whole thing is a bit of a non- issue. I f som ething is not l i terally m ade in I taly why is i t Made in I taly? I f we take a closer look, though, the answer isn?t quite as sim ple as the question m ay lead on.

The issue is this: because the quest ion itself is pret ty one-note, subsequent outcry appears to follow suit . Most fashion and news media out lets are not taking kindly to the shift . Reduced by Rachel Donadio of the New York Times to, ?the

Chinese beat ing I talians at their own game,? tensions are high in the luxury sector whenever that li t t le tag comes up. Scholars, however, aren?t so quick to cast off I taly?s new product ion habits as being ant i- I talian at all. In fact , journals like Bloomsbury?s Fashion Practice have recent ly dedicated ent ire issues to the subject . This implies that a huffy dismissal probably just won?t cut it when it comes to nailing this thing down. Nor should it be, and that?s because this concept is nothing new. Culture can be examined through fashion, and that door swings both ways. Fashion can in turn be examined through a wider cultural lens. When approaching the changing face of Made in I taly through a Postmodern lens, for example, the shift is not a reject ion of I talian fashion but rather a logical response to Postmodern pr inciples of ident ity and how it?s const ructed

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The Made in I taly brand took off in the late 1970s and, as fashion theor ist Eugenia Pucinelli points out in The Cultural Economy of Made in I taly, ?the movement took hold on a nat ional and internat ional consciousness alongside the t r iumph of M ilan in that part icular moment .? Since then, any garment sport ing a Made in I taly tag has been upheld to a certain standard of quality, t radit ion, and craftsmanship unique to the peninsula. As I talian designer Daniele Tucci explains, ?The capacity to pay homage to t radit ional techniques while also seeking to innovate was, is, and always will be the key to Made in I taly?s success.? In that vein young designer Alessandra Navet ta of By Alis, a brand dedicated to the product ion of t ruly I talian fashion, is quick to weigh in. ?To me as an I talian, this at tachment to fashion comes about as the result of an innate cultural tendency,? she explains. ?This tendency has lead us to a t radit ion and history of high-quality craftsmanship. So the Made in I taly element of I talian fashion culture only makes sense and I think people want to hang onto that .? In Local Culture and Global Market: A Conversation with Protagonists of the I talian Fashion System, theor ist Emanuele Mora also dr ives home the idea that , ?the constant given in I talian fashion as its own ent ity is an emphasis on quality.? There seems to be a running theme here.

?I talian style,? says Pucinelli, ?spans beyond the breadth of fashion alone. I t would be short sighted to ignore the long history I talian style and the Made in I taly brand have enjoyed, and their roots in I talian art , li terature, and culture on a larger scale.? I talian fashion sensibili t ies far exceed the use of the Made in I taly tag, but nonetheless at tach themselves direct ly to the movement with plenty of associated implicat ions. The movement , with its own evolving sense of ident ity, cont r ibutes great ly to a sense of I talian nat ionalism.

In I taly, not ions of self-presentat ion don?t

simply exist to create stylish compet it ion; they are an important part of I talian existence and ident ity. I t is not about money, though of course there?s no shortage of fashion cash float ing around the count ry. Instead, this desire to look good and to present oneself well (or as the italians say, ?fare bella figura?) is a mat ter of social code. As Eugenia Paulicelli explains in The Cambridge Companion to Modern I talian Culture, ?The not ion of bella figura, which also means to create a good impression and to possess a sense of decorum in social and public occasions, is an important component of I talian ident ity and is part of a t radit ion which can be t raced back to the Renaissance and to texts such as Cast iglione?s I l Cortegiano.?

In t racing the t rajectory of I talian style, it is clear that the courtesans of I talian past in their brocade bodices survived in new cat -walking iterat ions when Giovanni Bat t ista Giorgini created the first I talian runway exhibit ion in 1951. Giorgini?s legacy in turn fathered the Made in I taly movement , dr iving the I talian aesthet ic from the pages of history to the biggest runways worldwide, foster ing the work of the nat ion?s fashion greats. Janus faced powerhouses like Versace, Ferragamo, Gucci, and Prada keep one foot in t radit ion and the other in fashion future, and emergent I talian creat ives follow suit - - and so the relat ionship between I taly and its fashion culture is far more than a consumerist handshake between I talian clothing and the people who wear it . I t is a mode of

"Italian style spans beyond the breadth of fashion alone."

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G o o d t o K n o w

existence that arcs across the t imeline of this cultural capital?s r ich and complex history. Essent ially, had Pit t i existed in the sixteenth century days of notor iously fashionable Queen Cater ina de Medici, she would?ve been there with bells on.

This outsourced upheaval is then bound to disturb. As the BBC?s Sylvia Smith explains, ?According to Marco L andi, president of the Tuscan t rade body CNA, more than half of the I talian-owned garment businesses in the indust r ial zone have gone over the wall in the past decade. In fact ,? she cont inues, ?there are now more Chinese manufacturers producing I talian text i les than there are I talian manufacturers doing the same.? At this point , more than 40% of Made in I taly fashion is either outsourced to places like Singapore and the Philippines, or produced by Chinese manufacturers both abroad and even within I taly it self, understandably interrupt ing the linear narrat ive of the Made in I taly inst itut ion.

Most tend not to enjoy disrupt ions to ident ity narrat ive. For example, it?d be uncomfortable to consider that your own ident ity could pull a 180 overnight . That there is no essent ial ?you? in the t radit ional sense. This would explain all the fuss, since much of Made in I taly?s

signif icance as a movement stems from an int r icate at tachment to I taly?s larger cultural ident ity. I t also holds major implicat ions about the count ry?s image as a cultural hotbed abroad. People typically f ind comfort in linear narrat ive, especially in terms of ident ity const ruct ion, but the progression of the Made in I taly brand just isn?t conducive to that way of thinking. A less t radit ional evaluat ion is what Made in I taly needs r ight now.

In this case, t iming is crucial. Given its late 1970s bir th, Made in I taly came into fruit ion at an important fork in the philosophical road between Modern and Postmodern ideology. Both schools of thought place a heavy emphasis on this idea of ident ity. This factors deeply into examinat ions of how I talian product ion somehow ended up in the Far East . Theor ist Douglas Kellner in Pop Culture and the Construction of Postmodern Identities explains that in Modernity, ?ident ity in some ways became more mobile, but for the most part remained relat ively substant ial and fixed.? Following in the footsteps of it s Romant icist predecessor, Modernist ideology st i ll hinges upon pr inciples of f ixed reality and object ive ident ity. Going back to the previous point , this is where that essent ial, comfortable idea of ?you? comes from. At this point ident ity, Kellner cont inues, ?st i ll came

Opposite: ByAlis Fall/Winter 2014 L imited Edit ion

1. The law of Last Substantial Transformation states that a garment's origin tag can legally correspond to the

place of last major assembly, even if parts were constructed elsewhere.

2. There are over 4,000 Chinese garment product ion factor ies within

I taly it self.

3, The M ade in Italy initiative is proposing a set of additional origin tags for garments that undergo all processes of design and production in Italy in a

more traditional sense. 4. The Italian government's 2015-2017 spending plan will allocate a budget of

$158.1 million for products sourced and produced in Italy.

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from a circumscr ibed set of roles.? Object ive ident it ies can be easily defined with linear narrat ive st ructures. That means there?s an object ive beginning, middle, and end to the development of the given ident ity that is in some way predeterminate.

Here?s how all that factors into I taly?s situat ion. The creat ion of an inst itut ion as an act is inherent ly simpler when building from an object ive framework; a specific, non negot iable start ing point . That creat ion is then in many ways more simply conceived as a Modernist act , sprout ing from one stable t ruth. Tradit ional concepts of the Made in I taly brand rely heavily on I taly?s own perceived object ive t ruth: I talian fashion is comprised of high quality garments conceptualized, designed, produced, and dist r ibuted in and from I taly. That is the, ?circumscr ibed set of roles,? behind that tag. That is the movement?s t radit ional ident ity; it s absolute set of values. From there, Modernist narrat ive spr ings and, if i t all goes according to plan, that narrat ive goes a lit t le something like this: ?I talians have long been purveyors of culture, histor ically breaking ground in visual art , li terature, performance, and cuisine. I t?s only natural that garment making would factor into that culture and from there, the inst itut ion of I talian fashion was born. For decades I talian designers have conceptualized, designed, produced, and dist r ibuted high quality garments in and from I taly. They cont inue to do so today.?

That?s nice and all, but that?s not how it worked out . And that?s why people are raging so hard against what has become the reality of I taly?s fashion machine. How, then, can we shift our thinking to look at this change more proact ively? Maybe a Postmodern approach is the answer, not only because the t imelines add up (it is, after all, a late nineteenth century brainchild) but because where the Modernist approach might fall down in

this case, Postmodernism stands up. The ident ity of Made in I taly as a brand is a largely Postmodern one. Here?s what that means.

Postmodernist philosophy calls for a breakdown of the comfortable Modernist narrat ive. Postmodern ident ity is inherent ly uncomfortable. I t?s not f luid and pays no mind to any absolute, object ive reality. In fact , Postmodern theory rejects the existence of any such thing. As Dominic St r inat i explains in An Introduction to Theories of Pop Culture, in a Postmodern world, ?limited and dependable sets of coherent ident it ies have begun to fragment into diverse, compet ing ident ity narrat ives.? Basically, Postmodernists don?t buy into the idea that ident ity is in any way predetermined by a set of standards or rules. Not in the way that Modernists do. That convenient story of I talian style we discussed disintegrates here. Postmodern ideology can help us out .

Pit t i Uomo: I talian St reet Style Photograph by Tommy Ton 9

Oddly enough, though the study of Postmodern philosophy is complicated in it self, it can help us understand a fair ly simple shift in I talian fashion?s ident ity at present . And at certain points, the shift isn?t so hard to comprehend but it takes a specific framework to understand why the changing face of Made in I taly doesn?t have to be an ugly one. When consider ing the Made in I taly problem, Pucinelli points out with a Postmodern sensibili t y that , ?The fluidity of ident ity invites us to consider alternat ive not ions of the self and nat ion that are not f ixed but situated in specific contexts.? She adds that , ?As a consequence, any at tempt at analyzing today?s Made in I taly is forced more than ever to contextualize its approach and cast it s eyes beyond nat ional borders.?

While we may want the context of Made in I taly to be that I taly?s economy is doing just f ine and that globalizat ion hasn?t halted internal product ion in it s t racks, that context doesn?t exist . To put it rather blunt ly, Pucinelli says, ?Nowadays, it is harder and harder to understand Made in I taly as meaning literally made in I taly.? Most , however, don?t want to let go of that t radit ional understanding. But it?s precisely this refusal to let go of t radit ional, histor ically based analysis that holds back product ive conversat ions about the new Made in I taly. So let?s put a Postmodern full stop on that .

I f carrying on its Modern narrat ive path, Made in I taly would have been dead in the water the second Miuccia Prada called for product ion in China. But it isn?t . Made in I taly?s actual ident ity is not f ixed on some object ive t ruth (namely that the nat ion?s luxury sector will cease to exist if i t s handbags and shoes are being assembled elsewhere). In fact , according to reports by Sam Harnet t of Marketplace.org, ?I talian luxury group Tod?s is f inancing the 2015 restorat ion of the Colosseum, and not far away, the Trevi Fountain is being

restored with $4 million from Fendi. Another luxury giant Bulgar i,? he cont inues, ?is paying $2 million to spruce up the Spanish Steps.? That isn?t the financial call of a dying breed. In fact , the contemporary I talian fashion indust ry is worth about $77 million. The Made in I taly ident ity isn?t really disintegrat ing on any pract ical basis but on an ideological one. A Modern one. So what does a Postmodern Made in I taly look like? Quite like it does r ight now.

Part of what situates Made in I taly well within the Postmodern condit ion is that Postmodern thought applies nicely to t ransit ive ident it ies. Unfixed situat ions. One such situat ion is our increasingly globalized world. Basically, Modernist ideas of home are centered much like your physical home. Made in I taly?s Modernist home is I taly. That makes sense. But it s new Postmodern home looks different and is a bit more t ransit ive. I t?s changed and it will likely keep changing, and its center is not necessar ily in Milan. Postmodern theor ist Mart in I rvine of Georgetown University adds that , ?Some scholars see the macro context of the postmodern condit ion within funct ions of globalizat ion and the network society. The global economic system has moved toward the internat ional merging of cultures and the global market ing of cultural goods.? I t?s simple. The very idea of globalizat ion topples t radit ional concepts of nat ionalism and linear cultural ident ity. That?s a pret ty Postmodern thing to do.

And therein lies the Made in I taly shift . Truthfully, the movement at it s core had no choice but to t ransit ion. ?To me, this issue of Made in I taly isn?t as sensat ional or scandalous as the media makes it seem,? says Alessandra Navet ta. ?I f a brand wants to maximize financial gain, leaving I taly is the natural choice. And so t radit ional ideas of I talian product ion no longer apply.? Tucci concedes to this reality as well, point ing out that at

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this point , ?The new norm for I talian fashion is that it?s enough for a garment to have been conceived of and designed in I taly with I talian sensibili t ies, even if it?s const ructed somewhere else.? Even I talian designers who place their utmost faith in the Made in I taly brand are aware of it s shift ing reality and ident ity. And so they must be if they want to stay ahead.

Part of part icipat ing in a Postmodern way of thinking, according to I rvine, ?means abandoning the hope or belief in linear, progressive movement toward a goal, an end, or a fulf i llment .? Is this not what I talian creat ives and producers are now doing? Of course, this is part ly unconscious and dictated in many ways, but don?t worry: Postmodernism has a remedy for that , too. Perhaps the most puzzling (and convenient ) element of Postmodern philosophy is that it doesn?t care whether or not you?re consciously part icipat ing in it s movement . Ser iously. The ever faithful I rvine weighs in, point ing out that one of Postmodernism?s prominent features is that it , ?is an era we?re just in regardless of anyone?s state of awareness.? Well that just t ies it up neat ly, doesn?t it? I t?s all quite simple in a certain sense but also complicated as it dest roys what have become convenient nat ional t ruths.

On the surface, it?s easy to be frust rated with that init ial quest ion: Why does my bag say it was Made in I taly when it actually came together in China? I t is also easy to view this as a total breakdown of the fashion powerhouse that is I talian style. However, in an increasingly globalized market and world in general, linear Modernist narrat ives no longer inspire thought ful discourse about ident ity and nat ionalism as we once understood them. That

is especially t rue in the case of I taly?s rapidly evolving luxury sector

The reality is that these brands are st i ll household names and they?re st i ll making money. Did names like Versace and Prada peak in the ninet ies? Maybe, but f inancially speaking, the I talian fashion indust ry isn?t going anywhere. The disrupt ion is ideological. And even if I talian designers aren?t raking in as much cash as they did in their heyday and I taly?s flounder ing economy may not have the wherewithal to compete with outsourced product ion r ight now, there is no dissolut ion of the I talian design archetype. As

Sylvia Smith explains, ?Even if I talian producers fail to compete in terms of pr ice, it remains that I taly?s t rue fashion st rength lies in it s cont inued aesthet ic.? Perhaps physical product ion has always been an inst itut ional after thought , only brought to light as product ion methods cont inue to shift in such a drast ic way.

In any case the disrupt ion stems from an inst itut ional ident ity shift that is hard to swallow unless viewed postmodernly. In reality, it?s counterproduct ive to cr it ique the Made in I taly brand as having somehow let fashion down. Smaller names like Alessandra Navet ta are st i ll f inding their way creat ing beaut iful I talian fashion. M iuccia is st i ll sit t ing pret ty. As far as I talian business leader Bruno Cucinelli is concerned, ?Made in I taly has a great future. There will be plenty of room for I talian products made both in I taly and elsewhere with that special I talian appeal, exported all over the world.? And global ent repreneurs tend to agree. Xu L in, an avid investor in foreign-produced I talian fashion, asserts that ,

"Even if Italian producers fail to

compete in terms of price, it remains that Italy's true fashion strength lies in its

continued aesthetic."

Opposite: Anna Ewers for Prada Resort 2014, Photograph by Josh Olins 11

?Economic currents are set to favor I talian companies if they innovate and wake up to new opportunit ies,? even if those new opportunit ies change the face of t radit ional I talian fashion product ion as we know it . When it comes down to it , I talian creat ives are the ones who perpetuate the success of the Made in I taly brand, because I talian minds are the only ones fostered and condit ioned to breathe life into their own cultural aesthet ic, no mat ter what changes take place in their ident ity narrat ive. Those narrat ives perpetually evolve and change in the scheme of Postmodern ident ity const ruct ion, and as Mr. L in points out , adaptat ion to new ident ity narrat ives is key in survival. In any case, I talian designer Ermanno Scervino explains that in order to create t rue I talian fashion, ?You need to live [ in I taly] where beauty, art , and craftsmanship have been t reasured since the Renaissance. I t can?t be copied.? And so physical product ion may not hold the drast ic import we once presumed. Someone has to conceive of I talian fashion before it is born physically, whether that be in Florence, Singapore, Par is, or Hong Kong, and the fit test minds for doing so are most certainly born into I taly?s cultural current .

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Bianca Balt i for Dolce & Gabbana - Photograph by Giampaolo Sgura

Turn to page 37 for a sit down with Italian designer Alessandra N avetta of By Alis

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