Che Bella! Curves and Contours

Has Italian fashion truly embraced curviness, or is it still caught in a cycle of trends?

Bellissima! by Isabella Campagnol explores how the ideal of curvy Italian beauty, embodied by 1950s movie stars like Sophia Loren, has evolved over time. Research on Italian fashion magazines from the 18th century to the 1920s shows that the slim look prevailed, with curviness almost absent. The Fascist regime shifted this perspective, linking curviness to fertility. The "soft" silhouette of the 1930s continued into the 1940s and 1950s, faded in the 1960s and 1970s, and made a comeback in the 1980s with supermodels like Monica Bellucci. Brands like Elena Mirò and Marina Rinaldi played a pivotal role in promoting curvy fashion, a trend recognized by Italian Vogue and other labels at fashion weeks. Despite progress toward inclusivity, "curvy-washing" still occurs.

Ideal for students studying fashion, faculty teaching fashion, and especially those interested in understanding the evolution of beauty ideals, curviness in fashion, and the cultural and political influences on fashion trends.

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Abstract
• Table of Contents
• Content warning
• Introduction
• Learning objectives
• 1 The concept of Italian beauty from the Renaissance to the Belle Époque
  • 1.1 The Belle Donne of the Italian Renaissance
  • 1.2 Shapes of beauty from the seventeenth century to the fin de siècle
  • 1.3 Belle Époque belles
  • Notes
• 2 Bodies in transition: Shifting ideals of beauty from the 1920s to the 1970s
  • 2.1 Angular beauties. Modernism and the aesthetics of the female body in the 1920s
  • 2.2 “Beautiful women with strong arms”
    • Politicizing femininity and beauty ideals in fascist Italy (from the 1930s to the 1940s)
  • 2.3 Paradigms of beauty in postwar Italy. Miss Italia and the Maggiorate
  • Notes
• 3 A contemporary Italian silhouette: Curves and diversity in twenty-first-century Italy
  • 3.1 The curvy turn: Reframing Italian women’s fashion through dedicated brands
  • 3.2 Contemporary bodies. Rethinking beauty, diversity, and new aesthetics in twenty-first-century Italy
  • Notes
• Recommended projects/assignments/discussion questions
• References
• Index

Isabella Campagnol is fashion historian and Senior Lecturer in History of Fashion at Istituto Marangoni, Milan and Florence. She is the author of “Forbidden Fashions. Invisible Luxuries in Early Venetian Convents”, TTUP, 2014 and “Style from the Nile. Egyptomania in Fashion from the 19th Century to the Present Day”, Pen & Sword, 2022.