“In praise of Fabric”: Italian Interior Design and Its Women (1923-1057)

Textiles and living space

In 1982, Alessandro Mendini wrote the editorial “In Praise of Fabric” for the magazine Domus.¹ In that short text, the designer lauded the “fine elegance of malleable materials”, which achieve their fullest expression in our most protective shell–the inside of our homes:

These days I am enthralled by all types of fabric: wool, coton, silk, nylon, knitting and embroidery; I’d like to cover all my rooms with rugs, pillows, tapestries and festoons.²

The relationship between fabric–in its various forms­and architecture was first explored at the end of the 19th century when British experts (like Henry Cole and Owen Jones) and German experts (including Gottfried Semper) set out the principles of the “grammar of ornament”.³ Fabric became a fundamental object of study in the quest to reconstruct a history of art and design. Semper’s theory of dress­ing, or Bekleidungstheorie, posited that the art of weaving played an essential role in mankind’s primitive activities.⁴ According to this view, everything that people construct is, in fact, a variation on this art: walls serve the same function as clothes, which is to separate and protect.

It is not by chance that the English verb inhabit comes from the Latin habitare, which in turn derives from habitus (clothing). Not only did people begin making fabric to cover their bodies, but also to build their homes. Early man employed skins as doors to their caves, and nomadic peoples used curtains and rugs to mark off space and create private alcoves. In this sense, fabrics evoke the idea of the home as a shell (Gaston Bachelard) or as a primitive refuge, burrow or shelter (Rudolf Arnheim).⁵

In Italy, the connection between interior space, furnishings and textile art would be picked up by various scholars: Guido Marangoni in the 1930s, Giovanni and Rosalia Fanelli in the 1970s, and Renato De Fusco in the mid-1980s. In Arredo e abbigliamento,⁶ Marango­ni points to the socio-cultural traditions and lifestyles that can be detected in the design of furnishings and space. He “emphasised the textile value of furnishings: fabrics are the raw material of clothing, especially women’s clothing”, and he points to “women’s taste as a positive evolutionary contribution to social manners”.⁷ Giovanni and Rosalia Fanelli, in a work on modern fabric, draw a parallel between the birth of contemporary design and the origins of fabric.⁸ The authors describe the close relationship between fabric, furnishings, space and fashion through a historical examination of three main periods (1890-1907, 1908­-1927 and 1928-1940) in various European countries and the United States. The authors dwell on Christopher Dresser’s work and the intrinsic link between design space and fabric, noting that Frank Lloyd Wright’s rugs and tablecloths and the fabrics decorating Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s furniture “are intended not as objects in space, but as a presence that, together with patterns on interior surfaces, characterise that space”. ⁹ In 1985, Renato De Fusco’s Storia dell'arredamento underscored the importance of fabric as a defining factor of the domestic space. De Fusco viewed the architectural interior spatially, as a “lining” (fodera), i.e. the interior surface of a room, consisting of walls, ceiling and floor. This “lining”–a term borrowed from the terminology of textiles–refers to spatial features that cover and protect.

The role of women in the rise of Italy's textile industry

The Monza Biennials and then the Milan Triennials played an instrumental role in the burgeoning of textile arts in Italy. Further support came from the publication of fabric-related research in architecture magazines such as Domus Fig. 2 and Stile¹⁰ and textile journals like Snia viscosa. I tessili nuovi.¹¹ In the first three decades of the 20th century, textile production in Italy was dominated by a handful of firms: Mariano Fortuny in Venice, Frette in Milan and Lisio in Florence.¹² Up until the end of the 19th century, fabric had been the undisputed master of the bourgeois house, whose interiors were defined by large tapestries and sumptuous curtains. Beginning in the 1930s, however, fabric once again made a place for itself–this time in the modern home–thanks in part to some visionary designers and new synthetic fibres.

Gio Ponti’s editorial “The Italian Home” in the first issue of Domus, in 1928, marked the start of a new conception of the home. He propounded a definition of comfort that goes beyond the goals of simply meeting needs, providing conveniences and organising services. Comfort, for Ponti, should be “something more”, which lives up to “the true sense of the beautiful Italian word conforto".¹³ That issue included a series of articles providing”guidance on taste and furnishings" aimed at bringing readers into contact with new trends, shunning imitations of the ancient world (so-called stylish furni­ture) and promoting elegance and modern design.

Fabric played a leading role in this development, and Domus even dedicated a regular column to new textiles. In 1941, Stile Fig. 3 –under Ponti's leadership–devoted an entire issue to fabrics, with a particular focus on their use in interior design and on new “autarkic” fibres.¹⁴ The first article, “Why are we writing about fabrics?”, offered 12 answers to that question, from the desire for comfort to the need to promote major new fibres such as rayon, flock and hemp, which were also used in the fashion world. Gio Ponti wrote:

Because nowadays we want our homes to be bright and inhabited by joyful creativity, and because fabrics, new fabrics, made from these Italian fibres, are the liveliest and happiest expression of this. Because, in accordance with modern taste, fabrics are used to good effect not just on walls and in curtains, seats and seatbacks, but also to upholster furniture.¹⁵

Ponti also emphasised the desire to free homes from dark colours, bringing in light, bright colours and freshness. Fabrics, no less than marble, majolica and linoleum, are among the materials used to organise interior space. That same issue presented, in the style of a user manual, a number of examples from some of the leading architects of the time: Franco Albini, the partnership BBPR (Gian Luigi Banfi, Lodovico Belgiojoso, Enrico Peressutti and Ernesto Nathan Rogers), Ignazio Gardella and Ponti himself. Fabrics figure prominently in these interiors, adorning walls, wardrobes, armchairs, beds, curtains, ceilings, doors, vestibules and balconies. Modern fabric began to play a fundamental role in interior design.

During these years, Italian textile design advanced through experimentation, collaboration, and synergies between industry and master designers. But that period was also punctuated by lesser-known episodes and overlooked figures who nevertheless made an important contribution in terms of technique and artistry. The history of this period can be divided into two main branches: the artisanal practice of weaving, which was dominated by women Fig. 5¹⁶ and the business of printed fabrics, where architects and artists collaborated in large numbers with sizeable firms like Mita in Genoa, Jsa in Busto Arsizio and Socota in Como, to narine a few.¹⁷ The International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in 1923 kicked off this collaborative trend among firms, artists and local artisans, symbolising a renewed cultural and intellectual fervour.

It was during the early Biennials that figures like Fede Cheti, Gegia Bronzini, Anita Pittoni and Bice Lazzarilesser-known artists who teamed up with leading architects on designing home interiors–came into their own. As a result, modern interior design in Italy came under a largely female influence. Textile research and experimentation flourished in this period, as witnessed in particular by the 10th (1954)¹⁸ and 11th (1957) Milan Triennials Fig. 4 ¹⁹ when Fede Cheti helped to launch a number of competitions. Also particularly noteworthy were Lina Bo Bardi’s contribution to the fabrics and curtains section (Palazzo dell'Arte, 1934), where various fabrics were displayed on slender structures, and Marco Zanuso and Maria Cristina Mariani aka Cini Boeri’s entry in the fabric section of the 9th Milan Triennial (1951), in which long flowery fabrics were slung from the ceiling, marking off a winding and enveloping path.

Fabrics in the modern Italian home: Anita Pittoni and Gegia Bronzini

Many women worked as artisan-artists in the first half of the 20th century. Textile making was so popular (as was ceramics) because the work did not require a significant investment and could be done at home.²⁰ Two women working in the Veneto region stand out.

The first, Anita Pittoni (1901-1982), from Trieste, offered a new interpretation of knitting and crochet in the tapestries, rugs, fabrics for furnishings and clothes that she produced using vegetal and synthet­ic fibres.²¹ Her work clearly reflects her relationship with avant-garde figures in the world of art and design, especially with the architects from BBPR. Her fabrics could be found, for example, in the house designed by Gian Luigi Banfi, which was featured in issue 148 of Domus (1940). Fig. 1 ²² The house is laid out as a continuous space, with all rooms connected to each other through physical passageways. The fabrics were chosen to accentuate this flow: the curtains, for example, consist of ropes of varying colours and thickness, creating the feeling of a permeable border.

While Anita Pittoni, despite her success, never moved beyond her artisanal workshop, Gegia Bronzini (1894-1976) founded what would become a flourishing business producing fabrics for furnishings. Born in Milan, she followed her husband to the Veneto countryside, where he managed a large farm. Bronzini learned how to weave from local peasant women and then founded a weaving school of her own to promote the craft. Working with her daughter Marisa, she offered a free class for women in the rural town of Marocco, near Venice, before setting up a production workshop that eventually developed its own creative identity. Her extensive involvement in the Milan Triennials and the Selettive di Cantù²³ helped drive her research forward. Her first shop, Antigua Ars Nova, which she opened in 1936 in Piazza San Marco, Venice, furthered her goal of promoting the age-old technique practiced by rural Veneto women. Fig. 6 She opened a second shop in 1939, in the Galleria del Toro in Milan, and a third in Cortina after the war. In 1946, she moved her workshop to Cantù, near Como. There she was able to tap into the popularity of furniture making, which lay at the centre of the local economy and of that period’s cultural debate.

Gegia Bronzini never stopped exploring the possibilities of the double-heddle loom, experimenting with a wide range of materials and graphical signs. In private interiors, her fabrics were an integral part of the design process, alongside furnishings and spatial layout. She engaged in a number of notable collaborations, including with Ico and Luisa Parisi²⁴ and architect Carlo Lucci.²⁵ Together with Osvaldo Borsani, Bronzini created the fabric for the well-known D70 sofa bed (1954) made by Tecno.²⁶ These few examples provide some insight into the creative influence that a handful of women had on the design of Italian domestic interiors at the time.

Interior “linings”

In the 20th century, fabrics came to be viewed as a material able to convey a feeling of “domestic happiness” that Italian architects sought to elicit through their work. Architecture in the 20th century, despite its focus on simplifying the decorative vocabulary, offered many examples in which fabric, and the intimacy it affords, continued to play an abiding role in defining home interiors.

Textile “linings” awaken tactile sensations and protective memories that convey warmth and physical contact. In the context of space, they are understood to be an “elementary but complete unit of architecture: a unit of atmospheric space in which we are immersed and fully breathe”.²⁷ They are the cladding that reconfigures the elements of architectural space.

A prime example came early in the 20th century: the bedroom that Adolf Loos designed for his wife Lina (Vienna, 1903). In this neat application of Gottfried Semper’s principle, the floor is covered by an angora wool rug that also cloaks the bed frame, transforming it into a sort of interior landscape, while the walls are draped in continuous, white-toned curtains. The expressiveness of fabric creates endless possibilities in interior design: “Fabrics are wonderful materials, among the most beautiful: they hold knowledge, they are colour; printed fabrics bring artistic poetry into the home.”²⁸ With these words, Gio Ponti reminds us of the importance and meaning of an approach to design that goes beyond the material to include the wisdom of its creation.

The close collaboration between architects and a predominantly female cohort of weavers, most notably after the Second World War (in Italy: Fede Cheti, Gegia and Marisa Bronzini, Renata Bonfanti and Anita Pittoni), led to exciting developments in interior design and decoration: “We recognise the need to design fabrics that are not simply a series of printed patterns, and the desire to create designs where fabrics fit logically into the surrounding environment.”²⁹ In this sense, home interiors emerge out of a holistic design process in which the use of elements like fabrics helps define spatial features, enhancing their effect and conveying a softer and more intimate idea of domesticity.

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