Il design italiano attraverso moda, arte, cinema, grafica e musica dal Secondo Dopoguerra al 1969

This paper investigates the relationship between Italian design and the wider cultural context in which it is rooted. Italian design has witnessed social, cultural and economical transformations since the Post War reconstruction. In doing so, it has interacted with contemporary cultural forms like art, fashion design, cinema, graphic design, advertising and music in a mutual and fertile exchange. This paper shortly describes the first phase in which the profession of the designer was defined and consolidated, during the Post War reconstruction. After the Second World War, Italy needed to reconstruct its social, political and economic systems. New buildings for new working families needed to be furnished; the early generation of architects/designers like Castiglioni or Magistretti found a fertile dialogue with bright entrepreneurs from Northern Italy like Cesare Cassina or Ernesto Gismondi (Artemide). Designers started to acquire a professional identity and in 1956 ADI (Association for the Industrial Design) was born. Moreover, this paper describes how Italian design interacted with the national popular culture, contributing to the construction of myths and cultural symbols.