Untitled

Stephen Gundle
but instead figure-hugging dresses; no more excessive simplicity, but rather
sumptuousness, richness, eye-catching qualities, folds, straps, white, black, pearls
and silver.” 41
So equipped, Lollobrigida and Loren were well placed to travel abroad to
promote their films and at the same time offer an image of Italian craft and fashion.
In Hollywood and more widely in the United States, they would receive admiring
comments for the richness and originality of their toilettes. They became objects
of admiration and imitation on the part of women of a wide range of social classes
the world over. At once different from and part of the star elite that defined and
diffused the ideals of Hollywood glamour, they aroused interest and attracted
attention.
The “Dolce Vita” Connection
It was not just Italian stars who traveled in the 1950s but the world that came to
Rome. While the city underwent population growth and urban expansion, it also
became a fashionable city, a cosmopolitan crossroads for the international elite of
the rich and famous. Vast numbers of film actors, directors, and personnel acted
as a magnet for hangers on, aspirant people, and movers and shakers. In addition
rich playboys, idle aristocrats, and bored heiresses made it a vital point in their
itinerary. Rome became a center for an international café society that in the 1960s
would evolve into the jet set. This cosmopolitan crowd provided a layer of social
life that the city had never had before. On top and alongside of the conventional
scene, there was another made up of the rich and the beautiful. For a period, Rome
became a combination of Paris and Hollywood, and certainly the place that gave
rise to the most gossip and scandal. These featured in some of the mainstream press
as well as the notorious scandal sheet Confidential.
For foreigners Italy had always possessed glamour, in the sense that it presented
an enticing image mixing beauty, sexuality, theatricality, wealth (in the form of
heritage), and leisure. In the years of the “dolce vita” this was given a new twist
as the wealth acquired a contemporary connotation and the beauty and sexuality
were associated with fashion and film. Many of the events which appeared in the
world’s press and were seen to typify the decadent hedonism of the life of the
celebrity elite in Rome were not spontaneous but staged by press agents. These
included in 1958 Anita Ekberg’s night-time dip in the Trevi Fountain and a
celebrated impromptu striptease performed at the Rugantino nightclub by Turkish
model Aiché Nana. But there were sufficient genuine conflicts between celebrities
and press photographers around the Via Veneto to lend an air of authenticity to
the phenomenon. Snapshots of illicit celebrity couples and of men kicking and
punching photographers in the dead of night turned Rome into a center of modern
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