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Hollywood Glamour in Postwar Italy
tall, slim, angular woman, perfectly groomed and cool, proliferated in magazines
and advertisements. In fact, although these images were unapproachable for some
women, they were not as removed from all as might be thought. First, as Carter
has pointed out in her examination of German women’s magazines, there was an
emancipatory element in that these images often showed women acting in a
confident and sophisticated way in public places, unencumbered by family and
domestic duties. 38 Second, they portrayed womanhood as fashion, taste, and
consumerism, in other words as a process involving pleasures. Third, the upperclass
woman was historically the most at home with things that were now coming
within the reach of the many: surplus spending, home comforts, domestic help
(appliances now, not servants), beautification, fashion. Fourth, images of a model
like Lisa Fonssagrives, and by extension those of other models of her type and
some “class” film stars, actually “seemed accessible to every woman,” David
Seidner has written. They offered grace, balance, and reserve, combined with a
certain energy “that resonated in the subconscious of generations of women to
whom [Fonssagrives’] appeal was irresistible.” Such women appeared to be in
control and true to themselves. Fonssagrives’ “dance experience gave her a sense
of theatre so that the elaborate costume never looked mannered or affected – a
comfortable masquerade.” 39
The triumph of the “aristocratic type” confirmed the decline of the old upper
classes rather than the opposite, for it was not as substance that it acquired
resonance but as image, as deracinated look. The image could be promoted by
anyone of whatever background provided they possessed the right physique and
bearing. The rise of this sort of image in Italy, associated mostly with the haute
couture model and later film actress Elsa Martinelli, but also diffused thanks to
Lucia Bosè and a physically transformed Silvana Mangano, showed that peasant
culture and its associations with the fear of scarcity were being eclipsed. 40
The influence of fashion culture and its centrality to feminine consciousness was
underlined by the way all Italian female stars became more elegant in the mid-
1950s. Having won popularity with men by wearing flimsy, revealing costumes
that exposed their shapely figures, Loren and Lollobrigida underwent a turn
towards elegance in 1955–6. The Neapolitan dressmaker Emilio Schubert, who
catered to many foreign stars, provided new inputs into Italian film costume, but
importantly he also contributed to the new image of Italy’s stars by making
spectacular gowns and dresses that they could wear for receptions, festivals, and
premières. These were theatrical, geared to the demands of image and flattering.
Schubert sought, while preserving the freshness and spontaneity of the stars, to
transcend their early images and confer a new look. He persuaded Lollobrigida,
who had been “the typical good-looking Italian girl who doesn’t really know how
she wants to be or should dress,” to cut her hair and become more sophisticated:
“once she had changed type, the clothes had to change too. No more wide skirts,
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