In Filoforme - Abstract ENG

FILO FORME anno 11 n. 18

Venetian needle lace
Lucia Costantini (page 3)

Venetian needle lace dates from the end of the fifteenth century and was part of the work by Venetian noblewomen reflecting their refined and cultured environment. Needle lace is the aristocratic descendent of embroidery that employs traditional stitches in the creation of elegant and well-crafted pieces, and does not use a support textile but is “constructed” stitch by stitch. There were thousands of women in the city of Venice and the surrounding islands involved in the creation of true masterpieces that can still be admired in the Lace Museum on the island of Burano. With the coming of mechanical production in the 1800s, the cottage industry underwent a crisis, even though trousseaus were still produced for the wealthy classes and religious vestments continued to be made for the clergy. In 1872, Countess Andriana Marcello founded the “Burano Lace School” under the patronage of Queen Margherita di Savoia. After a difficult beginning, lace production soon returned to its original splendour. For a century, the School was highly successful in all the exhibitions where it participated, quickly bringing fame to the island. Today, in order to overcome the current crisis that sees fewer and fewer women practising the difficult art of needle lace, innovative ideas are needed so that the lace production progresses and evolves with fashion and the Art. In order to accomplish this, the reproduction of the decorative motifs handed down for centuries and that today can be mechanically reproduced at a much lower cost should be left in the past.

Variations, fashion, and folklore in the Cortina dʼAmpezzo area between the two World Wars
Priscilla Manfren (page 10)

Among the propaganda themes during the Fascist Period in Italy, the regime focussed on popular tradition and local customs. These popular practices were considered displays of “spontaneous artistic genius” by the Italian people. It is interesting to note that the presumed uniqueness and originality of Italian popular dress, along with a refusal of any fashion and contemporary taste not tied to Italian national identity, was abruptly inverted in 1936, the year in which Fascist Italy – once convinced of its own selfsufficiency – received German solidarity. Examples of these changes are seen in articles in the magazine Cortina, which first came out in December 1933 as a mouthpiece for the social events in the fashionable resort area that emerged during the rise of Fascism in the dʼAmpezzo valley. In its pages, Cortina illustrates that type of “artificial folklore” so desired and carefully created throughout the Italian peninsula by the regime. The magazine directed a number of its pages to the ladies of high-society who arrived from the cities to holiday in Cortina. The fashion pages provided advice on the type of clothing suited for every moment of their free time and it kept readers up-to-date on the latest fashions.