History as an intangible asset for the Italian fashion business (1950-1954)

Purpose – This paper aims to reconstruct the process that led to the appropriation of history – of a particular historical period, the Renaissance – as an intangible asset in the promotion of Italian fashion on the international market after the Second World War. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reconstructs the process that led to the appropriation of history – of a particular historical period, the Renaissance – as an intangible asset in the promotion of Italian fashion on the international market after the Second World War. Findings – The successful debut of Italian fashion in the fifties can be explained through an intelligent marketing campaign which placed it directly in the centre of a well-known, appreciated, not to say indisputable, tradition of “good taste”: that of the Renaissance. Connecting Italian fashion with Renaissance Italy meant in fact introducing a kind of ante litteram guarantee of provenance – a “country branding” - recognized throughout the world, which, at the same time, evoked the splendour of a period in which Italian taste was a model to follow and imitate. Originality/value – The studies on the history of the Italian fashion business have accepted the association of Italian fashion with Renaissance tradition as an element to be taken for granted, without inquiring into the historical legitimacy of such a coupling (either in the way in which it was produced or why it had such an important role). This paper dismantles the consistent rhetorical sedimentation with which the subject is encrusted and provides a new insight, showing that such continuity did not exist; on the contrary, it was the product of a marketing strategy.