From the Press to the Market: The Promotion of Italian Prêt-à-Porter in Spain through the Historical Archive of the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana

Abstract

In the 1980s, after Spain’s accession to the European Economic Community as a full member —a development that allowed foreign manufacturers to market their products directly without relying on the system of licenses granted to local distributors— the conditions for a broader internationalization of fashion distribution were consolidated. Within this framework, in 1987 the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (National Chamber of Italian Fashion) and the Istituto Nazionale per il Commercio Estero (Italian Institute for Foreign Trade) organized a collective fashion show of Italian designers in the Palacio de Cristal in Madrid’s Retiro Park. The aim was for the event to serve as the starting point for a series of initiatives designed to facilitate the penetration of the Spanish market.

This article reconstructs the preparatory organization of the event through archival documentation produced by the CNMI and preserved at Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi in Milan. Furthermore, by analyzing press materials, the study expands its scope to the reception of Italian fashion in Spain, both in the press and in trade fairs, from the end of the Second World War onwards.