Skip to content
1981
1-2: Film, Fashion, Costume in Italy and Beyond
  • ISSN: 2047-7368
  • E-ISSN: 2047-7376

Abstract

While the influence of fashion on the cross-class audience of Italian silent cinema has been established, the relationship between fashion and silent Hollywood stresses the class-composition of the audience. The work of director Robert G. Vignola, born in Italy but active in the United States, clarifies the passage from a cinema addressed to the popular audience of the nickelodeon to the middle class, and specifically women, in the narrative and through stars, within the suggestions of fashion. There is a general consensus about Italian American culture being an extension of Italianness. In the press, Vignola was always identified as an Italian and his artistic sensibility was credited to his Italian origins, at a time where Italian silent cinema was incredibly popular on American screens. From a transnational perspective, the role of fashion in his work both within a historical perspective and in the theoretical debate on female silent film spectatorship also points to the underestimated relations between American media and Italian culture.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jicms_00248_1
2024-04-16
2026-04-20

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Abel, Richard (1999), The Red Rooster Scare: Making Cinema American, 1900–1910, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Abel, Richard (2006), Americanizing the Movies and ‘Movie-Mad’ Audiences, 1910–1914, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Anon. (1915), ‘Dressing for the movies’, Photoplay, 7:3, pp. 11518.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Anon. (1918), Select Pictures Magazine, New York: Press of Thos. B. Brooks.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Anon. (1921), ‘Enchantment has all the ingredients of success’, Motion Picture News, 19 November.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Anon. (1922), ‘Re-introducing Miss Davis’, Photoplay, 21:5, p. 48.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Anon. (1924), Scrapbook on Yolanda, New York: New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Arnold, Rebecca (2001), Fashion, Desire and Anxiety, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Brunetta, Gian Piero (2003), The History of Italian Cinema, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Dalla Vacche, Angela (2008), Diva: Defiance and Passion in Early Italian Cinema, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Douglas, Ann (1977), The Feminization of American Culture, New York: Anchor Books Doubleday.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Dumenil, Lynn (1995), Modern Temper, New York: Hill and Wang.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Eckert, Charles (1990), ‘The Carole Lombard in Macy’s window’, in J. Gaines and C. Herzog (eds), Fabrications, Costume and the Female Body, London: Routledge, pp. 10021.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Enstand, Nan (1999), Ladies of Labor, Girls of Adventure, New York: Columbia University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Ferguson, Elsie (1920), ‘Clothes and good taste’, Photoplay, 17:4, pp. 5758.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Gaddis, Pearl (1915), ‘Taking tea with Alice Hollister’, Photoplay, 7:3, pp. 8789.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Gaines, Jane and Herzog, Charlotte (eds) (1990), Fabrications: Costume and the Female Body, London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Gauntier, Gene (2004), ‘Blazing the trail’, in R. Koszarski (ed.), Fort Lee: The Film Town, Barnet: John Libbey, pp. 2227.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Grazia, Victoria de (2005), Irresistible Empire, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Harvard University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Grazia, Victoria de and Furlough, Ellen (1996), The Sex of Things: Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective, Berkeley, CA: California University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Guiles, Fred Laurence (1973), Marion Davies: A Biography, London and New York: W. H. Allen.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Howard, Lillian (2015), ‘Fashions and the Screen’, Photoplay, 9:1, p. 71.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Jacobs, Lea (2010), ‘The Talmadge sisters’, in P. Petro (ed.), Idols of Modernity, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, pp. 6586.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Koszarski, Richard (2004), Fort Lee: The Film Town, Barnet: John Libbey Publishing.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Muscio, Giuliana (2013), ‘In Hoc Signo Vinces: Historical films’, in G. Bertellini (ed.), Italian Silent Cinema: A Reader, Barnet: John Libbey, pp. 16170.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Muscio, Giuliana (2015), ‘American women screenwriters in the 1920s’, in C. Gledhill and J. Knight (eds), Doing Women’s Film History, Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, pp. 193205.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Muscio, Giuliana (2018), Italy in Hollywood, Milan: Skira-Ferragamo.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Muscio, Giuliana (2019), Napoli/New York Hollywood. Film Between Italy and the United States, New York: Fordham University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Paulicelli, Eugenia (2016), Italian Style: Fashion & Film from Early Cinema to Digital Age, New York: Bloomsbury.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Peiss, Kathy (1996), ‘Making up, making over: Cosmetics, consumer culture, and women’s identity’, in V. de Grazia and E. Furlough (eds), The Sex of Things, London: University of California Press, pp. 31136.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Petro, Patrice (2010), Idols of Modernity, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Pizzitola, Louis (2002), Hearst Over Hollywood, New York: Columbia University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Russo, John Paul (1994), ‘From Italophilia to Italomania’, Differentia, 6&7:Spring & Autumn, pp. 4576.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Sherwood, Robert (1921), Vignola clipping files, New York: MoMA.
  35. Stamp, Shelley (2000), Movie-Struck Girls: Women and Motion Picture Culture After the Nickelodeon, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Stanley, May (1920), ‘Jazzing up the fashions’, Photoplay, 17:6, pp. 5758, 131.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Susman, Warren (1984), Culture as History, New York: Pantheon Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Talmadge, Norma (1921), ‘Wear America first’, Photoplay, 18:3, pp. 4951.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Tolini Finamore, Michelle (2013), Hollywood Before Glamour: Fashion and Silent Film, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Vignola, Robert (1921a), Enchantment, USA: Cosmpolitan.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Vignola, Robert (1921b), Interview transcript in Vignola clipping files, 1 February, The Times-Union, New York: MoMA.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Vignola, Robert (1922a), Beauty’s Worth, USA: Cosmopolitan.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Vignola, Robert (1922b), When Knighthood Was in Flower, USA: Cosmopolitan.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Vignola, Robert (1924), Yolanda, USA: Cosmopolitan.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Vignola, Robert (1926), Fifth Avenue, USA: Producers Distributing Corporation.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Vignola, Robert (1932), Broken Dreams, USA: RKO.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Wilson, Elizabeth (1994), ‘All the rage’, in J. Gaines and C. Herzog (eds), Fabrications, London: Routledge, pp. 2838.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/jicms_00248_1
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test