THE NATION IN UNIFORM?

FASCIST ITALY, 1919–43

Uniforms have been prominent in the visual memory of Italian Fascism, and are still
instantly recognizable symbols of the years of Mussolini’s rule to modern-day Italians.
Images of them abound on the internet, in books, and in newspapers and historical
documentaries. They have also been used in literary texts and memoirs as a symbol of
the regime itself.1 Their emotional and symbolic importance for diehard believers in the
Fascist cause has outlived the fall of the regime. Even today, some latter-day Fascists
wear them (or at least versions of them) on ‘pilgrimages’ to Mussolini’s birthplace in
Predappio. During the ventennio, 2 uniforms were an essential component of ‘the
theatricality of politics’, the highly choreographed and stage-managed rituals and
pageantry that aimed to instil a mystical belief in the nation, around which the previously
divided Italian people could unite.3 Massed ranks of regimented, uniform-encased
bodies, lined up in squares or in march formation, represented the might, unity and
discipline of the regime — an imposing show of force aimed at rallying the faithful and
intimidating the opposition.4 In uniform, members of an ‘oceanic crowd’ appeared to
lose their individuality, merging into a disciplined, civilian army of devotees of the Fascist
‘faith’, poised to 1 See, for example, a short story by Giovanna Zangrandi describing a
home-made safari jacket which served as a symbol of the regime and her contempt for
it: ‘La Sahariana’, in Giovanna Zangrandi, Anni con Attila (Milan, 1966). Note also Luisa
Tamagno’s unpublished memoir which uses uniform as a metaphor for her changing
understanding of Fascism, from initial pride in her smart outfit to anger during the war:
‘Settanta primavere: autobiografia di un’inguaribile provinciale’, Archivio Diaristico
Nazionale, Arezzo (hereafter ADN), MP/03. 2 Literally ‘twenty years’, a term used to
denote the years of Fascist rule. 3 On the theatrical aspects of Fascism, see, for
example, Emilio Gentile, ‘The Theatre of Politics in Fascist Italy’, in Gu¨nter Berghaus
(ed.), Fascism and Theatre: Comparative Studies on the Aesthetics and Politics of
Performance in Europe, 1925–1945 (Oxford, 1995). 4 On Mussolini’s view of himself as
an ‘artist’, able to mould the human clay of a crowd into an impressive, aesthetically
pleasing spectacle, see Simonetta FalascaZamponi, Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics
of Power in Mussolini’s Italy (Berkeley, 1997). Past and Present, no. 221 (Nov. 2013)
The Past and Present Society, Oxford, 2013 doi:10.1093/pastj/gtt023 Advance Access
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 carry out the Duce’s every wish.5 Redolent with
echoes of the Great War and soldierly masculinity, uniforms also symbolized the
transformative ambitions of the new politics, whereby an ordinary Italian could become
a ‘Fascist new man’ — a heroic, athletic and dynamic member of Fascism’s mystical
‘community of believers’, ready to sacrifice all for the nation. Inspired by the Italian
example, militaristic uniforms became a hallmark of the wave of Fascist or quasi-Fascist
movements and parties that emerged across Europe during the inter-war years. The
Nazis, of course, are the best-known example, but many others, like the ‘Blueshirts’ in
Ireland, the Falange in Spain and the Iron Guard in Romania, similarly adopted
uniforms. Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists explicitly imitated Italy in their use
of black shirts. It is therefore perhaps surprising, particularly given the considerable
interest historians have shown in the visual, aesthetic aspects of Fascist politics, that
virtually no scholarly attention has been paid to this topic.6 The handful of publications
that are devoted to uniforms are primarily illustrated works intended for collectors of
Fascist memorabilia.7 Historians interested in dress under Fascism have mainly
focused on the regime’s attempts to wrest the Italian fashion industry away from the
long dominance of the Parisian fashion houses, notably with the creation of the Ente
Nazionale della Moda (National Fashion Agency), and the campaign to stamp out the
use of foreign terminology in the garment and fashion industries.8 They have, however,
largely ignored uniforms, as did, indeed, the world of fashion itself at the time. But
Fascist uniforms merit a closer look: they shed 5 On ‘faith’ as a core concept in Fascist
politics, and on how the Fascists themselves understood their politics as a ‘lay religion’,
see Emilio Gentile, Il culto del littorio: la sacralizzazione della politica nell’Italia fascista
(Rome, 1994). 6 The main exception to this is a brief but interesting section in
Falasca-Zamponi, Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini’s Italy,
101–4. See also Gianni Oliva, ‘Divisa’, in Victoria De Grazia and Sergio Luzzatto (eds.),
Dizionario del fascismo, 2 vols. (Turin, 2002), i, 437–9. 7 See, in particular, Ugo Pericoli,
Le divise del duce: tutte le divise e i distintivi del fascismo, dalle origini alla caduta
(Parma, 2010); Elio and Vittorio del Giudice, Italiani . . . Tutti in divisa! Uniformi, fregi e
distintivi delle organizzazioni giovanili del partito nazionale fascista (Parma, 1980). 8
See the very useful Sofia Gnoli, La donna, l’eleganza, il fascismo: la moda italiana dalle
origini all’Ente Nazionale della Moda (Catania, 2000). See also Eugenia Paulicelli,
Fashion under Fascism: Beyond the Black Shirt (Oxford, 2004). On the Nazi equivalent
of the Ente Nazionale della Moda, the Deutsches Mode-Institut, see Irene Guenther,
Nazi Chic? Fashioning Women in the Third Reich (Oxford, 2004), ch. 6. 240 PAST AND
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 light both on the appeal of the regime and on
some of the constraints on Fascism’s transformative and totalitarian ambitions. The use
of uniforms in civilian life can, of course, have many meanings. During the nineteenth
century, a period when everyday dress was becoming less class differentiated, uniforms
for occupational groups such as servants, railway guards and the police became
common as a way of retaining social distinctions and hierarchies.9 In some contexts
(many modern school uniforms, for example), they can have a democratic intent.
Fascist uniforms, like military uniforms, had a dual and contradictory message: they
signified both sameness (the Fascist opposition to individualism) and the Fascist
watchword of hierarchy. Uniforms were a core element of the Fascist project to remake
Italians in a new mould. Although the Fascists frequently boasted of the gloriousness of
Italy and everything Italian, at the same time they often depicted Italians themselves as
problematic, the faulty raw material of the nation which needed to be purged of its
‘character defects’: defectswhich appeared to have been underscored by events such
as the military defeats at Adowa and Caporetto. Only a transformative politics, they
believed, could enable the Italian people to cast off the legacy of centuries of subjection
to foreign powers and become the true heirs of Ancient Rome. This new politics would
make Italians disciplined, obedient, patriotic, and ready to ‘regenerate’thenation through
war. AsMussolini intoned, Fascism would dispel the image of Italians, in the eyes of
many foreigners, as ‘easy-going, disorderly, amusing, mandolin-playing’; now they
would be seen as ‘ordered, solid, quiet and powerful’.10 As Silvana Patriarca has
recently argued, the idea that ‘the Italian character’ was somehow defective and needed
to be ‘remade’ was far from a Fascist invention. Many commentators in the previous
century had written on this theme (although the specific failings they denounced tended
to vary over time). Their writings, however, had been confined largely to publications
read by the literate elite. What the Fascists did that was new was to popularize such
ideas for the masses.11 9 See Diana Crane, Fashion and its Social Agendas: Class,
Gender, and Identity in Clothing (Chicago, 2000), 87–94. 10 Benito Mussolini, ‘Il Gran
Consiglio del Fascimo nei primi quindici anni dell’Era fascista’, Foglio d’ordini (sheet of
orders) 205, 10 July 1938. 11 Silvana Patriarca, Italian Vices: Nation and Character
from the Risorgimento to the Republic (Cambridge, 2010), 134–5. THE NATION IN
UNIFORM? FASCIST ITALY, 1919–43 241 Downloaded from
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 Although the idea of ‘remaking Italians’ was
evident from the earliest days of Fascism, the ‘reform of custom’ reached its height in
the 1930s with the ‘anti-bourgeois campaign’ (a campaign against what were seen as
‘bourgeois values’ rather than the actual bourgeoisie themselves) when Fascist
invective targeted the ‘bourgeois mentality’ of those who sought an egotistical
‘armchair-loving’ life, in contrast to the active, militaristic, heroic and manly attitude of
the ‘true Fascist’. This transformative quest included attempts to influence behaviour in
various ways, such as trying to ban the handshake (replacing it with the Roman salute)
and ‘fascistizing’ forms of address. It also included the use of uniform. Uniforms
reinforced the idea that the Partito Nazionale Fascista (PNF) was not just a political
party but a way of life, one that was marked by military, virile values.12 As Mussolini
wrote in July 1926, ‘our organization is a real army’.13 The PNF Statuto (constitution) of
1932 echoed this, defining the party as ‘a civil Militia, under the Duce’s orders, serving
the Fascist State’.14 Ideas of virility were central to the project of ‘remaking Italians’, for
a recurrent theme in many negative depictions of ‘the Italian character’ had been its
supposed ‘effeminacy’.15 Mussolini himself considered dress highly important
(commenting in 1938, for example, that ‘It’s the habit that makes the monk’)16 and used
it to shape his public persona. In his early parliamentary years, before the advent of the
dictatorship, he cultivated respectable support in a sober frockcoat, but from early 1923
increasingly wore uniform.17 This generally meant a Militia uniform with the insignia of a
rank reserved for him alone, 12 On Fascism and masculinity, see Sandro Bellassai, ‘The
Masculine Mystique: Antimodernism and Virility in Fascist Italy’, Jl Mod. Italian Studies,
x (2005), 314. 13 Cited in Patrizia Dogliani, Il fascismo degli italiani: una storia sociale
(Turin, 2008), 59. 14 Partito Nazionale Fascista (hereafter PNF), ‘Statuto Approvato dal
Gran Consiglio del Fascismo nella Seduta del 12 Novembre 1932-XI E.F.’, Foglio
d’ordini 99, 16 Nov. 1932. 15 On this, see Patriarca, Italian Vices: Nation and Character
from the Risorgimento to the Republic, 25–30, 87, 105. 16 Giuseppe Bottai, Diario,
1935–1944 (Milan, 2001), 131 (entry for 19 Aug. 1938). 17 According to Quinto
Navarra, his valet, he began wearing uniform after receiving an ardito uniform as a gift:
Quinto Navarra, Memorie del cameriere di Mussolini(Naples, 2004 [1946]), 42. 242
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 that of ‘First Honorary Corporal’ or later, in the
imperial phase, ‘First Marshal of the Empire’. When not in uniform he frequently
appeared kitted out for sport, aviation or motorcycling, or in occupation-based outfits —
dressed, for example, as a miner (complete with headlamp) or as a bare-chested
peasant for his annual ritual threshing of the first corn in the Agro Pontino. All this was
integral to the attempt to portray him both as a modern man, commanding technology,
and a man of the people, earthy and used to hard toil: in short, Fascist virility
incarnate.18 I EARLY UNIFORMS: 1919–31 Fascism’s interest in uniforms stemmed
primarily from its roots in the Great War and the fact that many ‘Fascists of the first hour’
had recently returned from the trenches.19 For the earliest Fascists — the squadristi
who roamed northern and central Italy violently attacking their political opponents —
uniforms symbolized combattentismo (fighting spirit): the military and virile values of
camaraderie and sacrifice which they felt should now infuse civilian life. The uniforms
adopted by the squadristi were, however, clearly distinguishable from military uniforms,
particularly by the fact that they were predominantly black whereas army uniforms were
grey-green. But elements of military uniforms were incorporated, such as
knee-breeches and the tasselled black fez, both associated with the arditi, the First
World War shock-troops. The arditi were the inspiration for many of the ideals and
values of early Fascism. Their esprit de corps, unlike most of the infantry, was marked
by exaggerated nationalism, high morale and an enthusiasm for audacious exploits on
the battlefield. Many ‘Fascists of the first hour’ came from their ranks. From the very
beginning, the black shirt was the most important element of the Fascist uniform, to the
extent that it quickly 18 On the various (and sometimes contradictory) ways in which
Mussolini was represented photographically, see Sergio Luzzatto, L’immagine del duce:
Mussolini nelle fotografie dell’Istituto Luce (Rome, 2001). 19 Many squadristi who were
not actual war veterans were too young to have fought and felt that they had missed an
opportunity for glory. See Roberta Suzzi Valli, ‘The Myth of Squadrismo in the Fascist
Regime’, Jl Contemporary Hist., xxxv (2000), 131. THE NATION IN UNIFORM?
FASCIST ITALY, 1919–43 243 Downloaded from
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 became synonymous with the political movement
itself.20 The Fascists were not, of course, the first to use a shirt as a political symbol —
this practice clearly echoes the red shirts worn by the garibaldini. Although it is often
assumed (wrongly) that the black shirt stemmed from the arditi, 21 it was in fact inspired
by the black work-shirts typical of peasants and workers in Emilia Romagna (Mussolini’s
home region), and was first worn en masse by Fascists during a violent raid in Ravenna
in 1921.22 This use of black gave Fascism what cultural historian Luisa Passerini has
termed ‘a plebeian and rebellious image’23 as well as evoking the more obvious
associations with death and mourning. Pictures of early Fascists in 1919 generally show
them in suits and ties, but many soon began to wear uniforms.24 The squadrist
‘uniform’ was initially quite vaguely defined. It generally comprised a black shirt, fez and
knickerbockers, but many wore only one or two of these garments, or combined them
with improvised items such as old army helmets or black cravats (see Plate 1). Various
insignia were used, although after the March on Rome insignia denoting rank were
abolished. During the 1920s, the basic party uniform for adult men was gradually
formalized and it remained essentially unchanged throughout the ventennio. Its core
elements — shirt, fez, trousers and waist sash — were all black. Another Fascist
uniform that emerged in this period was that of the Militia. Founded in 1923 in an
attempt to impose discipline on the unruly squadristi, the Militia was supposedly the
armed guard of the revolution, a kind of parallel to the regular armed forces. Over the
years, members of the Militia appeared in an ever-expanding array of uniforms, for
different ranks and seasons and for various specialized roles. Smartly turned out with
daggers at their belts, the Militia 20 This deep association of a group or organization
with its uniform is a common phenomenon in other contexts. See Nathan Joseph and
Nicholas Alex, ‘The Uniform: A Sociological Perspective’, Amer. Jl Sociology, lxxvii
(1972), 719. 21 See, for example, Antonio Spinosa, Starace (Milan, 1981), 28. 22
Pericoli, Le divise del duce: tutte le divise e i distintivi del fascismo, 8. See also Silvio
Bertoldi, Camicia Nera (Milan, 2006 [1994]), 9. 23 Luisa Passerini, Fascism in Popular
Memory: The Cultural Experience of the Turin Working Class, trans. Robert Lumley and
Jude Bloomfield (Cambridge, 1987), 105. 24 For an extensive set of illustrations and
detailed descriptions of Fascist uniforms and insignia, see Pericoli, Le divise del duce:
tutte le divise e i distintivi del fascismo. Many party publications also contain useful
illustrations. See, for example, the many coloured illustrations in PNF, Agenda Annuario
Anno XX, 1941–2 (Milan, 1941). 244 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 221 Downloaded
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of Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 1. A group of black-shirted Fascists setting off
from Milan for the March on Rome in October 1922. Image courtesy of Fototeca Gilardi,
Milan. This image has been blanked out due to restrictions from the rights’ holder.
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/past/article/221/1/239/1394616 by
Concordia University of Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 looked like soldiers. They
were, however, easily distinguishable by their black shirts and the arditi-style black
flashes on their jacket lapels, adorned with small fasci littori(depictions of bundles of
rods bound with an axe). One specialized Militia unit, the Moschettieri del Duce, served
as Mussolini’s guard of honour. Their uniforms, according to Mussolini’s valet, had been
designed by a Russian artist.25 With their military overtones, Fascist uniforms were
initially considered intrinsically masculine. No Italian women had served in the armed
forces in the Great War, even as auxiliaries, and only men had worn uniforms. The only
uniformed women at the front were the aristocratic Red Cross volunteers, but their
virginal white garb owed more to the habits of female religious than to any military
inspiration.26 Because of its military associations, initially male Fascists vehemently
opposed the idea of uniform for party women. Although photographic evidence
demonstrates that some of the handful of young women who took part in squad activity
during the rise of Fascism did wear black shirts (with skirts and waist sashes),27 in the
1920s there was much male resistance to the idea (as there was to the idea of women
having a real role in the party). On 14 May 1926, PNF Secretary Augusto Turati sent a
circular to all the secretaries of the Fasci Femminili (FF — Fascist women’s groups),
ordering any women’s or girls’ groups that had adopted black shirts to stop wearing
them. He stated bluntly: ‘Personally I am totally opposed to women and girls wearing
black shirts. The black shirt is the virile symbol of the combatant spirit of our revolution
and it has nothing to do with the welfare and good works that Fascism has entrusted to
women’.28 II THE 1930S During the 1920s, uniforms had aimed primarily to distinguish
party members from the rest of the population. In the following 25 Navarra, Memorie del
cameriere di Mussolini, 90. 26 On photographic images of Red Cross nurses in the
Great War, see Stefania Bartoloni, Donne al fronte: le infermiere volontarie nella Grande
Guerra (Naples, 1998). 27 See, for example, the group photo of some early Fascists,
including two women, in Pericoli, Le divise del duce: tutte le divise e i distintivi del
fascismo, 9. 28 This circular, from Augusto Turati, dated 14 May 1926, is included in an
undated letter sent by Maria Carini, Delegata Provinciale FF Treviso, to her local FF
organizers (Archivio di Stato di Treviso, PNF Conegliano, b. 26). 246 PAST AND
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 decade, with the new policy of ‘going to the
people’, this situation changed as the party itself changed. Achille Starace, PNF
Secretary from 1931 to 1939, attempted to remove the distinction between party and
nation by recruiting the entire Italian population. This somewhat surreal ambition was
never achieved, as the regime fell before the task could be completed, but party
membership did grow rapidly. Membership of the Fasci di Combattimento (for adult
men), which stood at 915,562 in 1926, reached over 2 million by 1936 and over 3.5
million by 1940. Similarly, the Massaie Rurali (for peasant women), founded only in
1933, grew rapidly from 241,654 members in 1935 to 1,656,941 in 1940. Other
branches of the PNF and its associated organizations expanded in an analogous
fashion. Their combined membership (both adults and children) was 18,396,498 in
1938, 21,606,468 in 1939 and, in 1940, 23,281,622 — over half the Italian population.29
A former light infantry captain, Starace himself clearly felt most comfortable in uniform,
and he tried to impose this preference on the party. Most historians are unsparing in
their criticism of Starace. Renzo De Felice, for example, described him as ‘a man
lacking in intelligence, with a narrow-mindedly militaristic, and not at all political, outlook,
which led him to mistake the outer form, the appearance of things, for their
substance’.30 Starace was also much ridiculed at the time but he, the most faithful of
the Duce’s hierarchs, was essentially only carrying out his master’s orders. According to
Alberto Spinosa: ‘He personally devised the uniforms of his strange army and in this
matter the Duce was his close collaborator in the choice of designs and fabrics’.31
During the Starace era, the number of different types of uniform expanded with the
proliferation of party roles, ranks and sections. Within the new party-nation everyone
had to know their place, and uniforms served as the visual marker of this hierarchical
intent. One sign of this was the reintroduction of insignia of rank in 1931. Although the
basic men’s uniform remained essentially unchanged, various optional versions
emerged, including those for 29 All these figures are taken from the annual fogli d’ordini
devoted to party membership levels. 30 Renzo De Felice, Mussolini il duce, 2 vols.
(Turin, 1974), i, 216. 31 Spinosa, Starace, 113–4. THE NATION IN UNIFORM?
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 summer and for colonial use. There was also a
dress uniform. By the late 1930s, despite the fact that this was when the party was
supposedly returning to its simple, squadrist origins, it included a black silk shirt, gilded
buttons and epaulettes, trousers with silk and gold piping, and a showy belt buckle
featuring an eagle flanked by two fasci littori. Although hierarchs wore the same uniform
as ordinary members, albeit with additional insignia, photographic evidence shows that
they tended to adopt more of the optional elements that were gradually introduced, such
as peaked caps, overcoats, capes and safari jackets. The black safari jackets were
made of orbace, a rough Sardinian cloth of felted wool. An ‘autarkic fabric’ that was also
used in many Militia uniforms, orbace became, like the black shirt, strongly identified
with the regime, its strength, impermeability and national origin — a suitable symbol of
the new politics. With his typical need to control every single detail, Starace kept a tight
rein on when and where each type of uniform could be worn, issuing numerous edicts
on the matter in ‘sheets of dispositions’. The accelerating rate at which innovations were
introduced finally ground to a halt in the war, when all modifications were suspended.
Party headquarters, it seems, at last had something more important to think about.
Although such variations on the basic uniform proliferated over time, they were entirely
optional for ordinary party members.32 Moreover, even in this period, when numerous
petty party directives were raining down from above, some flexibility remained: men
could choose between boots and shoes, knee-breeches and long trousers. In the
1930s, women were finally allowed to wear uniform. The look was tailored but softened
by feminine touches, such as skirts rather than trousers. Most significantly, their blouses
were white: no mere woman was to be permitted to wear a black shirt. Towards the end
of the 1930s, women’s uniforms became slightly more military in style, reflecting their
evolving role in the party and their increasing involvement in the mobilization for Empire
and war. The new outfits included safari jackets, complete with epaulettes adorned with
the fascio littorio. Summer and colonial versions of the women’s uniform appeared too.
32 See, for example, ‘Uniformi del PNF e relative disposizioni’, in PNF, Agenda
Annuario Anno XX, 251. 248 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 221 Downloaded from
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 When the Fascist women’s groups added
specialized sections for peasants and workers, however, the new recruits had no real
uniform, just a badge and kerchief. The peasants’ kerchief featured bunches of corn and
wildflowers, the fascio littorio and (repeatedly) the word DUCE. The workers’ triangular
kerchief similarly featured the word DUCE and the fascio littorio (see Plate 2). For
parades, rural women were supposed to wear their kerchiefs with local folk costumes.
Such costumes were not, however, promoted to urban women like the dirndl in Nazi
Germany.33 III THE YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS The Fascist movement had
boys’sections from the start. Sections for girls were added in 1929, and in 1935 sections
for the very young of both sexes were introduced. Boys in the Balilla (aged 8– 14) wore
black shirts and caps, shorts and pale blue neckerchiefs, and, for weekly drill during the
‘Fascist Saturday’ (instituted in 1935), shouldered miniature guns (see Plate 3). The
uniforms for older boys — the Avanguardisti (14–18) and Giovani Fascisti (18–21) —
were highly military in their look and many of the various successive versions included
garments in military greygreen. The boys’ organizations mimicked the armed forces,
with sections for land, air and sea (to prepare them for future military service), and each
had its own uniform. Like adult women, girls wore white blouses and black skirts, albeit
of a more flowing, less tailored cut (see Plate 4). The details, accessories and insignia
changed as girls moved up through the different age-cohort organizations, but the basic
pattern remained the same. Like adult women, the Giovani Fasciste (18–21) eventually
got safari jackets and versions of the uniform for summer, for sports and for ‘pre-colonial
training’. The latter group even occasionally paraded with guns. The white blouses,
however, carried the general message that, like FF members, these girls were not ‘real’
Fascists. The blouses proved useful in the choreography of the regime, as they
provided a good contrast in an otherwise black-shirted crowd. Teresa Sartorelli 33 On
the promotion of this outfit, see Guenther, Nazi Chic? Fashioning Women in the Third
Reich, ch. 4. THE NATION IN UNIFORM? FASCIST ITALY, 1919–43 249 Downloaded
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of Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 remembered being part of a ‘gigantic letter M
formed from an incredible number of Piccole and Giovani Italiane’ at a rally just before
the Second World War.34 IV A UNIVERSE OF SYMBOLS: INSIGNIA AND COLOURS
For the Fascists, who, as Emilio Gentile has argued, constructed ‘their own universe of
myths, rituals and symbols focused on the sacralization of the State’,35 symbolic
elements were very important. Fascist spectacle deployed them lavishly, and uniforms
were no exception. One aspect of this was the use of colour. Black, as the signifier of
the Fascist movement, was the most pervasive, but some uniforms also featured the
light blue of the House of Savoy (the royal family), crimson and yellow (the ‘colours of
Rome’), khaki (colonial uniforms), or grey-green for uniforms that were intended to have
a particularly military look. Insignia were laden with symbolic elements. Flaming torches
in the insignia of organizations associated with the Great War or the ‘Fascist revolution’,
for example, evoked the eternal flame of the unknown soldier. Other common symbols
included swords and shields (for the youth organizations, especially boys), a book and
musket (for students), and occupational icons such as sheaves of corn for peasants.
Skulls (associated with the arditi, whose pennants had featured skulls and crossed tibia)
were initially used in some squadristi insignia but subsequently were generally reserved
for the Moschettieri del Duce. Some symbols were particularly associated with Ancient
Rome. Both the eagle (present, for example, in the insignia of the university and youth
sections and of the Militia) and the she-wolf (the insignia adorning small children’s
uniforms) evoked Fascism’s ‘sacred tradition of romanita`’. This was also true of what
was easily the most pervasive symbolic element, the fascio littorio, which signified unity,
power, authority and justice.36 The standard PNF metal badge (disparagingly
nicknamed the bedbug because of its shape)37 included the fascio littorio, and 34
Teresa Sartorelli, ‘Una famiglia, un paese’, ADN, MP/87, 47. 35 Gentile, Il culto del
littorio: la sacralizzazione della politica nell’Italia fascista, 136. 36 On the Fascist
adoption of this symbol, see ibid., 84–90. 37 See Gianni Oliva, ‘Cimice’, in De Grazia
and Luzzatto (eds.), Dizionario del fascismo, i, 283–4. 250 PAST AND PRESENT
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 2. A prize-giving ceremony for wet nurses in
Avellino. Members of the Fasci Femminili, some in winter and some in summer uniform,
stand behind the desk. The women on the right are wearing the black kerchiefs of the
workers’ section. Date unknown but between 1938 and 1943. Reproduced by kind
permission of Lanostrastoria, 5http://www.avellinesi.it 4. Downloaded from
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 it was incorporated into various other insignia,
although less often in those for women. Female insignia, instead, mainly evoked the cult
of the Duce, featuring the letter ‘M’ (in the cursive script of Mussolini’s own signature).38
All cloth badges for female hierarchs featured the ‘M’, which effectively bracketed them
with young children since the ‘Figli e Figlie della Lupa’ (Sons and Daughters of the
SheWolf — ages 0–8) wore an outsized metal ‘M’ (for Mussolini) buckled to their
crossed white braces (see Plate 5). Admittedly the ‘M’ did occasionally crop up
elsewhere, but it was primarily associated with women and children. Some particularly
prestigious insignia were introduced in 1939 to honour those who had brought the
regime to power, doubtless as a way of reassuring the squadristi that they were still
deemed special even though all sorts of people, including many who had played no part
in the ‘Fascist revolution’, now had uniforms. There was a metal badge for former
squadristi, and the sciarpa littorio — a magnificent sash in the colours of Rome — was
worn diagonally over dress uniform. Only long-serving party hierarchs with documentary
proof that they had participated in the March on Rome were permitted to wear this. In
December 1941, reflecting the increased importance of the women’s organizations
during the war, long-serving female hierarchs got their own equivalent, albeit just a
modest badge.39 In addition to Fascist insignia, party uniforms could be further adorned
with military or civilian decorations of various kinds. The exact placing of all insignia,
whether Fascist or not, and the occasions on which they could be worn, were subject to
interminable petty regulations issued by party headquarters. V WEARING UNIFORMS
Uniforms were far from everyday garments for most PNF members, although all were
supposed to wear a metal party badge pinned to their ordinary clothes. Photographs of
inter-war 38 Much has been written on the pervasive cult of the Duce. See, for example,
Falasca-Zamponi, Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini’s Italy, ch. 2:
Gentile, Il culto del littorio: la sacralizzazione della politica nell’Italia fascista, ch. 6. 39
Foglio di disposizioni (hereafter FD) 250, 11 Dec. 1941. 252 PAST AND PRESENT
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 street scenes do not show throngs of black shirts
and kneebreeches, except when a Fascist parade was passing by. Everyday dress
continued to be determined by other factors, such as household economics, class,
gender, occupation, region, prevailing notions of modesty and respectability, and
international fashion trends. As in Nazi Germany, the Fascists only tinkered with the
world of fashion, prioritizing the attempt to displace France as world fashion leader over
the far more problematic project of trying to define a specifically Italian, or even Fascist,
style. Although many were not averse to donning party uniform for official occasions,
most middle and upper class women continued to be guided by international trends in
deciding what to wear in other contexts. According to Vogue, 3. Boys in the blue
neckerchiefs, black shirts and grey-green shorts of the Balilla uniform engaged in
‘pre-military training’ in Breno (Brescia) in 1943. Photographer: Ernesto Fazioli
(1900–55). Reproduced by kind permission of the Archivio di Etnografia e Storia
Sociale, Regione Lombardia. THE NATION IN UNIFORM? FASCIST ITALY, 1919–43
253 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/past/article/221/1/239/1394616 by
Concordia University of Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 Mussolini’s own view was
that ‘any power whatsoever is destined to fail before fashion. If fashion says skirts are
short, you will not succeed in lengthening them, even with the guillotine’.40 For many
male Fascist leaders, moreover, with their dismissive, patriarchal view of women,
decoratively fashionable women were preferable to the severe look of the party faithful.
If uniforms were to retain their special, ‘sacred’ aura, they could not be sullied by
everyday use. Uniforms were only to be worn when permitted, and this was especially
true of the black shirt, always considered the most symbolically important and emotive
part of the uniform. As the 1932 PNF Statuto spelled out: ‘The Black Shirt constitutes
Fascist uniform, and it should only be worn on authorized occasions’.41 The
enforcement of this principle even extended to making those with black work-shirts
change the buttons (to white ones), to avoid any suggestion that they were wearing the
symbol of the combatant, dynamic heart of the ‘Fascist revolution’ in a mundane
context.42 In the 1930s, uniformswere reserved for events such as political rallies and
meetings, or for persons engaged in party business. This meant that, although few
Italians wore uniforms every day, some did wear them quite frequently. The volunteer
‘Fascist Home Visitors’, for example, donned FF uniforms for their snooping welfare
visits to poor families. Party officials wore uniform most of the time, and university
lecturers wore uniform for events such as graduation ceremonies. From 1933
parliamentarians wore party uniform in the Chamber and Senate and, from 1939,
students were required to wear uniform for university examinations. From 1934 teachers
wore uniform every day in class — a potent symbol of the regime’s authority for a whole
generation of schoolchildren. Children were meant to wear uniform to school once a
week, ready to do drill and other activities in the afternoon of the ‘Fascist Saturday’.
Some party members undoubtedly wore their uniforms with enthusiasm. For committed
Fascists, uniform offered the chance 40 Jane Mulvagh, Vogue History of 20th Century
Fashion (London, 1988), 126, cited in Guenther, Nazi Chic? Fashioning Women in the
Third Reich, 131. 41 PNF, ‘Statuto Approvato dal Gran Consiglio del Fascismo nella
Seduta del 12 Novembre 1932-XI E.F.’, FD 99, 16 Nov. 1932. Similar injunctions also
appear in the FDs of 30 Apr. 1932 and 28 Aug. 1932. Later versions of the Statuto state
(in Article 7) that ‘Fascists must wear the PNF badge’ but black shirts are no longer
mentioned. 42 Passerini, Fascism in Popular Memory, 104. 254 PAST AND PRESENT
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 4. A family in Lombardy with children in youth
organization uniforms. Date unknown. Photographer: Simone Magnolini (1895–1982).
Reproduced by kind permission of the Archivio di Etnografia e Storia Sociale, Regione
Lombardia. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/past/article/221/1/239/1394616
by Concordia University of Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 to proudly proclaim
their political identity — a visual emblem of their true faith. But even for those with a
weaker sense of allegiance to the regime, uniforms could have their appeal. For men,
they afforded an opportunity for masculine display in an era when European men’s
dress, in stark contrast to that of many earlier (and indeed later) historical periods, was
generally quite sober, with little adornment. This was the era dominated by the practical,
but perhaps not very exciting, lounge suit.43 Uniforms offered a chance to dress up and
show off, to display a strutting, heroic masculinity in Fascism’s constant parades (see
Plate 6). There is no denying the erotic connotations and visually transformative
potential of men’s uniforms, particularly the swashbuckling, romantic look of the full
regalia of high boots, close-fitting waist sash and flowing knickerbockers. In uniform,
even a junior bank clerk could cut a manly dash. For women (for whom, conversely,
prevailing fashions offered more scope, if they could afford it),44 uniforms had their
attractions too: a tailored uniform could command respect and enhance the status of FF
members engaged in PNF activities, giving them an air of authority and officialdom.
Uniforms also enabled a female presence in ceremonies and rallies, offering women at
least a token foothold in the political sphere (albeit without any real power). For children,
a uniform could be a source of pride, in which they felt smart and important. Luisa
Tamagno wrote in her memoir: Those were carefree years when, every Saturday and
for rallies and sporting activities, I wore the Piccola Italiana uniform . . . In uniform, I felt
stronger, braver, better at everything. I was usually in charge of a troop of little girls, less
keen than me, but who had to jump like little soldiers to obey my every command.45
Similarly, Zelmira Marazio remembered ‘the joy of wearing the [Piccola Italiana] uniform
. . . They called us the Italian swallows and we were so happy running to a rally with
arms held wide to 43 The predominance of the suit as the main form of male attire has
been associated with the rise of the bourgeoisie and the decline of the aristocracy. On
broad changes in western male dress, see, for example, Jennifer Craik, The Face of
Fashion: Cultural Studies in Fashion (London, 1993), ch. 8. 44 A good deal has been
written about inter-war women’s fashion. See, for example, the very readable Valerie
Mendes and Amy de la Haye, Fashion since 1900 (London, 2010). 45 Luisa Tamagno,
‘Settanta primavere’, ADN, MP/03, p. 7. 256 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 221
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Concordia University of Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 5. A Son of the She-Wolf
in January 1939. Note the prominent M (for Mussolini) on his braces and the she-wolf
badge (symbolizing Rome) on his hat. Photographer: Simone Magnolini (1895–1982).
Reproduced by kind permission of the Archivio di Etnografia e Storia Sociale, Regione
Lombardia. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/past/article/221/1/239/1394616
by Concordia University of Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 make our broad cloth
capes flutter behind us’.46Part of the appeal for some children was that uniforms
marked the stages of their growing up. In a letter to her sisters in 1936, Cecilia
Squarcialupi, the wife of an army officer, wrote of her children: ‘To her great delight, a
few days ago V. dressed as a Picc. It. for the first time . . . D. is dreaming of a Son of the
She-Wolf uniform, and eventually we will make him happy too’.47 Uniforms were not
universally popular, however. Passerini’s oral history research found that girls were
generally more enthusiastic about them than boys. Boys often remembered them as
ugly and uncomfortable, and associated them with the tedium of ‘pre-military training’.48
The fact that some adult Fascists were similarly reluctant to embrace the new,
disciplined culture of uniforms is suggested by the deluge of orders Starace felt the
need to issue on this subject.49 Their irritable tone and festoons of italics and
exclamation marks betray his mounting exasperation with party members. For example,
in June 1933 he issued the following stern notice: ‘The regulations for PNF uniforms
stipulate long black trousers, not striped ones’;50 and in July 1933 he admonished
Fascist hierarchs for wearing non-regulation headgear: ‘At official ceremonies there
should be no top hats, just the simple black shirt of the Revolution’.51 The following
month he reminded them that ‘flowing black cravats are not permitted’.52 Some of
Starace’s orders related to the most minor of details — as when, in May 1934, he
remonstrated: ‘It is absolutely forbidden to wear a black shirt with a starched collar’.53
Even this small sample of Starace’s many edicts on the topic gives the distinct
impression that his project to transform Italians into an orderly, smartly turned out,
patriotic army of civilians, neatly classified into their 46 Zelmira Marazio, Il mio fascismo:
storia di una donna (Reggio Emilia, 2005), 28. 47 Letter from Cecilia to ‘Carissime’ (her
sisters), Florence, 20 Feb. 1936, in Marialuisa and Vera Squarcialupi, ‘Storia della mia
famiglia attraverso le lettere di mia madre e di mio padre’, ADN, E/05, III/1, p. 17. 48
Passerini, Fascism in Popular Memory: The Cultural Experience of the Turin Working
Class, 130. 49 For a sample of some of these, see Asvero Gravelli, Vademecum dello
stile fascista: dai fogli di disposizione del segretario del partito (Rome, 1939). 50 FD 19
June 1933. 51 FD 8 July 1933. 52 FD 7 Aug. 1933. 53 FD 23 May 1934. 258 PAST
AND PRESENT NUMBER 221 Downloaded from
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 6. Men from Avellino (probably ex-squadristi)
marching energetically in party uniform during the celebrations for the 20th anniversary
of the foundation of the Fascist movement (Rome, March 1939). Reproduced by kind
permission of Lanostrastoria,5http://www.avellinesi.it4. Downloaded from
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 appropriate party ranks and infused with
Fascism’s spiritual mission, was an uphill task. There is further evidence pointing to a
lack of enthusiasm for uniform among at least some party members. Zelmira Marazio,
for example, recalled her uncle grumbling about having to wear orbace to march around
town on Sundays,54 and the complaint of Adelchi Serena (acting party secretary while
Starace did his patriotic duty in Africa) in 1936 that ‘there still seem to be some party
members who are generally reluctant to wear Fascist uniform on official occasions and
at rallies’55 suggests that Zelmira’s uncle was not alone. More drastically, in 1941,
Serena authorized provincial hierarchs to withdraw party cards from any member who
failed to wear uniform on the Fascist holiday of 23 March.56 Even some hierarchs failed
to embrace uniforms with enthusiasm, and successive party secretaries repeatedly
reminded them of the obligation to wear uniform for official business.57 As late as
January 1940 (by which time it might be expected that such things would have become
automatic), Ettore Muti had to remind provincial leaders sternly that it was compulsory
to wear uniform ‘in the office, out of the office, on official journeys and during visits to
ministries. It is unacceptable for a Fascist to attend a ceremony in everyday clothing,
which is something I have seen’.58 Some who were reprimanded may have been lax
about obeying orders, or perhaps they simply considered their uniforms unflattering or
uncomfortable to wear, but some Fascists were highly critical of the uniform mania itself.
In 1939, an anonymous letter from a ‘mass, unknown Fascist, without rank but with the
pure spirit and soul of the revolution’ complained: There is a frenzy of petty Hierarchs,
who all seem like little DUCEs: vanity and ambition damage these small brains: group
leaders, sector leaders, dopolavoro leaders etc.: pompous uniforms . . . once all you
needed for a Fascist rally was a black shirt and at most a cap, all the Fascists turned up
. . . and they all understood that the Political Secretary was their hierarch and knew that
his uniform had to be different from the mass one. Now 54 Marazio, Il mio fascismo:
storia di una donna, 57. 55 FD 577, 25 Apr. 1936. 56 FD 94, 9 Apr. 1941. 57 FD 895, 3
Nov. 1937. 58 FD 65, 28 Jan. 1940. 260 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 221
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Concordia University of Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 there are nothing but
Hierarchs at rallies, all in hierarch’s uniforms, all with ranks . . .59 For anti-fascists,
uniforms were a potent symbol of a hated regime and, as such, to be avoided if
possible. When Giuseppe Odasso decided to get married in Fascist uniform in order to
qualify for a 500-lire grant, the ceremony had to take place almost in secret to avoid the
opprobrium of his predominantly left-wing neighbourhood. Giuseppe’s wedding was
held at the highly unusual hour of 6 a.m., in the presence of only two witnesses and his
nephew.60 Anti-fascists often tried to keep their children out of uniform. This could
prove uncomfortable for the children themselves. Sonia Ciapetti (born in 1930 in
Florence) recalled that Saturday was the day devoted to the Fascist Party, so we were
supposed to go to school in the ‘Piccola Italiana’ get-up. My dad hadn’t ever wanted to
buy me one because, for him, it was a notorious uniform. So, on that commemorative
day, I was the only girl in class in my usual white pinafore. The teacher, however,
always wore her fine Fascist uniform and she looked as if she felt more important and
showed off just like my vain schoolmates. I felt like a fish out of water, excluded from all
that conceited behaviour: they looked me up and down and I was left out. Every
Saturday, the teacher harped on in the same way, saying I should tell my parents to get
me a uniform. As instructed by my father, although I was embarrassed to say it, I replied
that my parents couldn’t buy me one as we couldn’t afford it. Eventually the teacher
acquired a free uniform for Sonia (albeit without a cape, as noted below) and, as she
remembers: ‘I was glad to get that uniform, because it meant I was the same as all my
friends’.61 Another child from an anti-fascist family who ended up in uniform was Arturo
Gunetti, whose parents only allowed him to join the Balilla after his fanatically Fascist
schoolteacher threatened to fail him in his end-of-year examination, despite his having
obtained good marks throughout the year. This was a political compromise Arturo’s
father (a communist) was willing to make to 59 Anonymous letter to ‘Ecc. Muti
Segretario Generale DEI FASCI’, received 16 Dec. 1939, Archivio Centrale dello Stato
(hereafter ACS), PNF, Situazione Politica ed Economica delle Provincie (hereafter
SPEP), b. 6, fasc. ‘Milano’. 60 Maurizio Gribaudi, Mondo operaio e mito operaio: spazi e
percorsi sociali a Torino nel primo Novecento (Turin, 1987), 155–6. The grant was
available to couples marrying on the Fascist festival of 28 October (the anniversary of
the March on Rome). 61 Sonia Ciapetti, ‘Il Salviatino: Ricordi di guerra di
un’adolescente 1940–1945’, ADN, MG/07, pp. 13–14. THE NATION IN UNIFORM?
FASCIST ITALY, 1919–43 261 Downloaded from
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 save his son’s education but, as Arturo recalled:
‘When I came home dressed as a Balilla, he would say: ‘‘Do us a favour, go and take it
off straightaway’’’.62 For some anti-fascists, a disrespectful attitude to the party dress
code could serve as a form of surreptitious resistance to the politics of the regime.
Giovanni Dogliero (born in Turin in 1922) remembered skipping parades, or, when he
did go, deliberately dressing wrongly: ‘once with the uniform-jacket and civilian-trousers
and, instead, another time with the uniformtrousers and an ordinary jacket’.63 He was
eventually forced to stop this behaviour after his father was reprimanded by the federal
secretary. VI MAKING UNIFORMS Despite being a symbol of the mass politics of the
regime, uniforms were not themselves mass-produced and issued by an official body.
This reflected the general situation of garment manufacture in Italy, where
ready-to-wear production was limited mainly to simpler garments such as shirts, men’s
underwear and children’s clothing. In 1937, only about 7 per cent of women’s clothing,
18 per cent of menswear and 46 per cent of children’s clothing was ready-made.64Most
garments were either made-to-measure by seamstresses or tailors or simply
homemade, for sewing was still an important occupation for women of all classes.
Moreover, many Italians, even relatively well-off people, would eke out their wardrobes
by dyeing or altering garments to make them more fashionable.65 Some sections of the
population were so poor that they only ever wore secondhand clothes or
hand-me-downs. 62 Passerini, Fascism in Popular Memory: The Cultural Experience of
the Turin Working Class, 140. 63 Ibid., 139. 64 Ivan Paris, Oggetti cuciti: l’abbigliamento
pronto in Italia dal primo dopoguerra agli anni Settanta (Milan, 2006), 54–5. 65 For
example, the letters of the middle-class Cecilia Squarcialupi, who also had many
clothes made by seamstresses, contain numerous references to the remaking of clothes
to make them more fashionable or to adapt them to fit another member of her family.
(Squarcialupi, ‘Storia della mia famiglia attraverso le lettere di mia madre e di mio
padre’). 262 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 221 Downloaded from
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 The production of party uniforms reflected this
broader context. Many children’s uniforms were mass-produced and sold by private
firms. In the mid 1930s, firms like the Provveditorato Italiano Articoli Vestiario
Equipaggiamento (giving it the patriotic acronym of PIAVE, the site of many of Italy’s
First World War battles) offered children’s uniforms in set sizes.66 Although this system
seems to have continued throughout the ventennio for smaller children, by 1939 older
boys were being instructed to acquire gaiters and jackets directly from the youth
organization offices, rather than from private suppliers (probably with a view to their
impending deployment on the battlefield).67 Adult uniforms were mainly
made-to-measure. According to his valet, Mussolini himself had his uniforms made by
the Roman tailor Cacciame, with fittings in his office in the Sala del Mappamondo.68
Most party members did likewise (albeit in less sumptuous surroundings). PIAVE, for
example, sold no ready-made adult uniforms but made them up for clients who sent in
measurements. Archival evidence demonstrates that this remained a free market, with
private firms competing for business right up to the end of the ventennio. 69 Insignia,
conversely, were supposed to be purchased only from the party.70 From 1926 the
regime had secured exclusive rights to the production of any item featuring the fascio
littorio (by now an ‘official state emblem’) and this production monopoly was extended to
other party insignia in 1941.71 No analogous legislation was passed, however, for
uniforms. Only the women’s kerchiefs were mass-produced and sold through party
sections. 66 See their catalogue: PIAVE, Condizioni di vendita (Rome, undated —
c.1934). Other firms included the incongruously named ‘Old England’ in Bologna
(renamed ‘La Nuova Italia’ during the autarky campaign) and Gaggi Zelinda in Rome.
Pages from their catalogues for 1933–4 are reproduced in Del Giudice, Italiani . . . Tutti
in divisa! Uniformi, fregi e distintivi delle organizzazioni giovanili del PNF, 12–13. 67 FD
1287, 14 Mar. 1939. 68 Navarra, Memorie del cameriere di Mussolini, 42–3. 69 In
1941–2, for example, receipts from numerous private firms and department stores were
submitted by members of the Mutual Society for Employees of PNF Headquarters,
applying for subsidies to help them buy the party uniforms they were required to wear at
work (ACS, PNF, DN, SV, Serie II, b. 94, fasc. ‘Uniformi fatture pagate’). 70 See, for
example, the price list in PNF, Agenda Annuario Anno XX, 252. 71 R.d.L. 2273, 30 Dec.
1926, subsequently converted into Law 2423, 18 Dec. 1927; Law738, 4 July 1941.
Those contravening this law risked three months in prison and a fine. Subcontracting
was permitted. THE NATION IN UNIFORM? FASCIST ITALY, 1919–43 263 Downloaded
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of Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 Some uniforms were certainly home-made.
Sonia Ciapetti (the schoolgirl mentioned above) remembered how she fashioned a cape
for her uniform: By persistently nagging my mother, I eventually managed to get her to
give me a woollen blanket, which my dear dad dyed black for me and which I myself
sewed. I borrowed a cape from a classmate, stretched out the dyed blanket on the living
room floor, carefully placed the cape on top of it and cut the blanket exactly the same.
Then I tacked the collar and went to a neighbour’s to sew it on a machine.72 Other
uniforms were made by female party members or produced by FF-run workshops which
offered paid work to unemployed women.73 These uniforms, along with other items,
were then distributed to ‘poor and deserving’ children during the ‘Befana Fascista’. The
‘Befana’ is a traditional folk figure, an old woman who brings a sack of gifts to children
on 6 January. In the Fascist version of the Befana, the gifts, distributed in
propagandistic public ceremonies, ostensibly came from Mussolini himself, but in reality
were financed by donations from firms and the public.74 The requirement that the
recipients of free uniforms be ‘deserving’ seems to have been taken seriously. Danilo
Pianigiani (born in 1931 near Arezzo) was one beneficiary of the Befana Fascista.
However, he never had the chance to wear his free uniform: a few days after he was
given it, a group of men came and removed it because his father was an anti-fascist.75
VII THE NATION IN UNIFORM? Many texts on the Fascist period seem to assume that
every single member of the party and youth organizations had uniforms. The film
costume designer Ugo Pericoli, for example, began his wellresearched and lavishly
illustrated guide to Fascist uniforms (a much coveted reference book for modern-day
collectors of Fascist memorabilia), first published in 1983, with the following striking
words: ‘For young people today it is difficult to imagine 72 Ciapetti, ‘Il Salviatino: Ricordi
di guerra di un’adolescente, 1940–1945’, 14. 73 By 1937 there were about 200 such
workshops in over 50 different provinces. (See the table dated 5 Mar. 1937 in ACS,
PNF, DN, SV, Serie II, b. 405, fasc. ‘Laboratori femminili’.) 74 Various FDs list donors.
See, for example, FD 1063, 17 May 1938. 75 Interview conducted by Gianluca Fantoni
with Danilo Pianigiani, 11 June 2008. 264 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 221
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Concordia University of Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 how the citizens of a
whole nation, like Italy in the Fascist period, could all, or almost all, wear uniforms . . .
[G]iven its totalitarian nature, at the height of its power, [Fascism] forced an entire nation
to dress in uniform’.76 Much of the visual imagery from the Fascist period that appears
in the media today seems (whether implicitly or explicitly) to confirm the idea that during
the years of Fascist rule a huge percentage of the Italian population wore party uniform.
Appearances, however, can be deceptive. Even a quick look behind the scenes at some
of Fascism’s ‘mystical’ pageantry can be instructive. Fiammetta Rossetti, for example,
who took part in a parade in Rome in the late 1930s as a member of a group of young
women and girls who had followed party training courses ‘to prepare them for life in the
Empire’,77 recalled: The day before they picked twenty girls, good-looking girls all the
same height, and gave them a sash with a red cross on it and white varnished boxes on
shoulder straps, all of them totally empty. Then they picked another twenty, all of
matching height, all good-looking, all pretty girls, and put on their backs grey-green
boxes with an antenna, again completely empty; and we made fun of them asking for
aspirins, or asking to let us listen to the radio, and those girls showed off . . . well that’s
when we realized that the Avanguardisti with skis had never seen the snow, it opened
our eyes a bit . . .78 The first-aid kits may have been fake, but Fiammetta (the daughter
of a civil servant) did at least possess a uniform of her own. And some well-off party
members had more than one. Cecilia Squarcialupi’s daughter V., for example, had no
fewer than six blouses for her busy schedule as a member of the Piccole Italiane.79
The situation of many other party members could not have been more different.
According to a survey carried out by party headquarters, in late 1940, a time of very
high overall party membership, literally millions of card-carrying members lacked
uniforms. For the survey, provincial party federations were asked 76 Pericoli, Le divise
del duce: tutte le divise e i distintivi del fascismo, 5. 77 On these courses, see Barbara
Spadaro, ‘Intrepide massaie: genere, imperialismo e totalitarismo nella preparazione
coloniale femminile durante il fascismo, 1937–43’, Contemporanea, xiii (2010), 27;
Perry Willson, ‘Empire, Gender and the ‘‘Home Front’’ in Fascist Italy’, Women’s Hist.
Rev., xvi (2007), 487. 78 Cited in Spadaro, ‘Intrepide massaie: genere, imperialismo e
totalitarismo nella preparazione coloniale femminile durante il fascismo’, 39. 79 Letter
from Cecilia Squarcialupi to ‘Carissime’, Venice, 11 May 1939 (Squarcialupi, ‘Storia
della mia famiglia attraverso le lettere di mia madre e di mio padre’, III/1, 128). THE
NATION IN UNIFORM? FASCIST ITALY, 1919–43 265 Downloaded from
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 to fill in forms giving, amongst other data,
information about local levels of uniform ownership. Although only part of the archive
has survived (the boxes relating to provinces beginning A–F are missing), what does
exist includes provinces from all over Italy. Enough forms have survived to suggest that
less than half of card-carrying members actually possessed uniforms at this date.80 In
most areas, perhaps unsurprisingly, practically all squadristi and Militia members had
uniforms. This was also true of almost all students (who, as noted above, needed them
for examinations). But the picture was very different for other types of members. In
Naples, for example, the figures are striking. Only around half of adult male party
members and just over a third of FF members had uniforms. About a quarter of those in
the sections for working class and peasant women had kerchiefs and less than
one-sixth of the 350,937 members of the youth organizations were in uniform.81 In the
central province of Siena, the situation was somewhat better, with 27,350 of the 46,139
youth organization members in uniform, but even here this was true of only about half
the adult party members.82 Likewise, in Genoa, about two-thirds of youth members, but
less than 50 per cent of adult members, had uniforms.83 In Messina (Sicily), less than
half of both youth and adult members were in uniform.84 Only a handful of provinces
had really high levels of uniform ownership. In Venice, almost 80 per cent of adult party
members and nearly three-quarters of youth members were in uniform.85 Reggio
Emilia, too, was well provided for. Here, it was claimed that every single one of the
42,920 Massaie Rurali had a kerchief and well over half of the 89,249 youth
organization members had uniforms.86 These two provinces, however, were fairly
atypical. Generally speaking, the proportion of party members with uniforms was
somewhat greater in northern than southern 80 The purpose of the survey is unknown.
It may have formed part of the plans for end-of-war victory parades. 81 ‘Intensita`
fascista 17 Ott 1940’, PNF Ufficio disciplina. Situazione politica, ACS, PNF, SPEP, b. 9,
fasc ‘Napoli’. Note: in calculating adult uniform ownership, I have excluded dopolavoro
members as they had no specific uniform. 82 ‘Intensita` fascista 18 Ott 1940’, ibid., b.
21, fasc. ‘Siena’. 83 ‘Intensita` fascista 17 Ott 1940’ ibid., b. 1, fasc. ‘Genova’ 84
‘Intensita` fascista 22 Ott 1940’, ibid., b. 5, fasc. ‘Messina’. 85 ‘Intensita` fascista
[undated]’, ibid., b. 28, fasc. ‘Venezia’. 86 ‘Intensita` fascista 17 Ott 1940’, ibid., b. 18,
fasc. ‘Reggio Emilia’. 266 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 221 Downloaded from
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 provinces, a fact that is unsurprising given the
more superficial impact of the regime in the south and the greater poverty there. But
even in the north, far from everyone was properly kitted out. In Milan, for example, less
than a third of the 432,462 youth members had uniforms.87 The exact significance of
these figures is unclear, given that the failure to acquire a uniform could be due to a
range of reasons including anti-fascist beliefs, political apathy or just simple poverty.
Many memoirs (like Sonia Ciapetti’s quoted above) recount how anti-fascist parents
tried to avoid enrolling their children in the youth organizations by claiming to be too
poor to afford uniforms. Even once membership became compulsory for all
schoolchildren, this remained a useful excuse to avoid actually dressing as a Fascist.
For many others, failure to acquire a uniform may have signified political indifference
rather than anti-fascism. In some respects, by 1940 the party was a victim of its own
success since the huge membership drive had inevitably recruited many with only a
superficial allegiance to the regime. Party membership teemed with what might be
called ‘Fascists of the eleventh hour’, many of whom had joined because compelled to
or because the party card had become the ‘bread card’, a prerequisite for access to
many jobs and welfare services. For many of these new members a uniform was not a
priority if their household budget was tight. The case of the early-morning bridegroom,
cited above, also underscores the symbolic power of the uniform. Those who, like him,
had joined the party for largely opportunistic reasons could, if necessary, fairly easily
keep it quiet from nosy neighbours and family. Actually wearing a uniform, however, was
a much bigger step. This, of course, was precisely why party hierarchs wanted
everyone to have one. Low levels of uniform ownership may also have been evidence
of a general fatigue with the regime by this time among some sections of the population.
According to Paul Corner, by the late 1930s, the novelty of fascism had long since worn
off. If some people had reacted initially in a positive way to the liturgy of fascism, to its
theatricality and to its symbols, they were now tired of the obligation to participate in
fascist 87 ‘Intensita` fascista [undated]’, ibid., b. 6, fasc. ‘Milano’. THE NATION IN
UNIFORM? FASCIST ITALY, 1919–43 267 Downloaded from
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 activities, tired of (expensive and uncomfortable)
uniforms, weary of endless rhetorical speeches.88 The fact that Italy was at this point at
war may have made it difficult for some new members to acquire a uniform, but most of
the party members in this survey had joined before the outbreak of hostilities. Even
before the war, basic economics meant that many party members, whether committed
Fascists or not, simply could not afford a uniform. There was some acknowledgement of
this in the definition of what constituted party uniform. A realistic grasp of the economics
of many households is clearly the reason why poorer women needed only a cheap
kerchief. In 1941, a kerchief cost 4.75 lire for peasants and 3 lire for workers. In the
same year, La Rinascente department store in Rome was charging 383 lire for an FF
uniform.89 The kerchiefs were a practical solution — but they did reinforce class
divisions (something Fascism claimed to have overcome), a symbol of the authority of
black-suited middle-class women over poorer party members. Most uniforms were quite
expensive. PIAVE, for example, charged between 240 and 315 lire for an adult man’s
uniform. Adding boots could mean a further 200 lire. Children’s uniforms were cheaper
— only 9–48 lire for a Balilla (excluding the cape and badges) — but this was still
expensive for many families. In 1938, according to official figures, private consumption
per capita in Italy was, on average, only 2,586 lire per annum, of which 9 per cent was
spent on footwear and clothing.90 Even for the lower middle class a uniform clearly
represented a major outlay: junior civil servants, for example, earned under 1,000 lire
per month.91But many earned far less than this. In the late 1930s, for example,
Eleuterio, an agricultural day-labourer from the southern province of Foggia, took home
only 14–17 lire per day, and his wife Luisa a mere 4.92 Day-labourers, moreover, 88
Paul Corner, ‘Fascist Italy in the 1930s: Popular Opinion in the Provinces’, in Paul
Corner (ed.), Popular Opinion in Totalitarian Regimes: Fascism, Nazism, Communism
(Oxford, 2009), 138–9. 89 Appunto per la ragioneria del direttorio (fattura sig. na Angela
Fianchini), 16.10.1941, ACS, PNF, DN, SV, Serie II, b. 94. 90 Emanuela Scarpellini,
Material Nation: A Consumer’s History of Modern Italy (Oxford, 2011), 85. 91 Ibid, 108.
92 Silvia Salvatici, Contadine dell’Italia fascista: presenze, ruoli, immagini (Turin, 1999),
185 n. 268 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 221 Downloaded from
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 like millions of other Italians, suffered from
frequent bouts of unemployment. Much insight into why it was unrealistic to expect poor
Italians, particularly the rural poor, to acquire Fascist uniforms can be gleaned from the
Monografie di famiglie agricole published by the agricultural research organization INEA
(Istituto Nazionale di Economia Agraria) in the inter-war period. As these surveys (which
analyze the household economy of 112 peasant families from various regions of Italy)
reveal, among the peasantry (still the largest single occupational group in Fascist Italy)
grinding poverty, scanty, dirty clothing and laborious laundry in rivers and communal
pumps were the norm. Many of the peasants surveyed by INEA suffered from extreme
clothes poverty, typically owning only a Sunday outfit, one or two work outfits, a pair or
two of shoes, a sweater or two, a paltry amount of underwear and possibly a coat or
shawl.93 Most of the families surveyed spent only about 100 lire per capita each year
on buying and repairing clothing and footwear. Even peasants who owned shoes
conserved them by going barefoot in summer and using wooden clogs in winter. The
main exceptions were new daughters-in-law, who generally brought clothes with them
as part of their dowries, but then had to make the dowry clothes last a long time. Many
households surveyed listed no Fascist uniforms, but for those that did (and these were
mainly children’s uniforms), this could represent a large portion of their wardrobe.
Pierino, for example, the 12-year-old son of a patriotic share-tenant from near Cagliari
(Sardinia), owned, in addition to his Balilla uniform, one Sunday outfit, two work outfits,
one pair of shoes, three shirts, two pairs of underpants and socks, a scarf and two caps.
It is not surprising, therefore, that although five children in Pierino’s family were youth
organization members, only he and his brother Renzo had uniforms, both gifts from the
Befana Fascista.94 This example helps to explain why party regulations had to spell out
not just when to wear uniforms but also when not 93 For a typical example, see the
Umbrian sharecropping family headed by Alfonso and Antonia in INEA, Monografie di
famiglie agricole, vol. v, Mezzadri e piccoli proprietari coltivatori in Umbria (Rome,
1933), 50–1, 60. 94 INEA, Monografie di famiglie agricole, vol. xv, Contadini Sardi
(Rome, 1939), 161, 168. THE NATION IN UNIFORM? FASCIST ITALY, 1919–43 269
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Concordia University of Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 to wear them: ownership
of garments that were rarely worn was a luxury beyond the reach of millions. It might be
argued that the low level of uniform ownership suggests that the party itself did not see
this issue as a priority. I have, admittedly, found no evidence of any large-scale plans to
remedy the situation (such as subsidizing the production of uniforms to make them
affordable) beyond measures like the Befana Fascista or allowing men to avoid the
expense of boots. It is, however, quite possible that the true extent of the problem was
not, in fact, known until the national survey cited here — the first, as far as I know, to be
carried out. By this time, Italy was at war and other issues doubtless seemed more
pressing. VIII CONCLUSION Uniforms were a core element of both the choreographic,
liturgical aspects of Fascism and the regime’s project to remedy ‘defects’ in the ‘national
character’ by militarizing civilian life, instilling patriotic values and shoring up virility.
They also served as markers of rank and distinction, potent symbols of the regime’s
hierarchical nature. The great range of what constituted ‘party uniform’ by the 1930s,
from the peacock display of the dress uniform to the simple kerchiefs of peasant
women, was a stark visual reminder that in the Fascist state everyone had their allotted
place according to gender, age, rank and class. During the 1920s, when party
membership was relatively low, uniforms were a badge of honour, designed to
distinguish party members from other Italians. Over the course of the next decade,
however, their role shifted, increasingly becoming a tool to reshape the mentality of the
entire population. It is clearly this shift in meaning that explains the abandonment of the
hostility towards women’s uniforms, albeit with the proviso that the black shirt itself
should remain an emblem of virile, soldierly values. After the civil war period of the early
1920s, when the squadristi donned uniform to conduct violent attacks on the opposition,
uniforms became relegated, for most party members, to moments of display. Such
occasions were, as a good deal of recent historiography has quite rightly emphasized,
taken extremely seriously by the regime, and visual spectacle was, of course, a
particularly 270 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 221 Downloaded from
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 powerful weapon in a country where millions were
illiterate or only semi-literate. The actual impact of this, the extent to which wearing a
uniform adorned with the symbols of the ‘Fascist revolution’ could really transform
anyone’s mental and political landscape, is, however, far from easy to assess. Uniforms
were certainly part of the appeal of Fascism. They could give a sense of identity and
belonging, whether to the regime itself or simply to a peer group of some kind. They
also offered a chance to feel important and, indeed, to show off. For poor children in
particular, they represented a rare opportunity to dress smartly and many, rich or poor,
do seem to have enjoyed wearing them. It would, moreover, be foolish to be too
dismissive of the effectiveness of the Fascist militarization of society. Admittedly, the
poor performance of the Italian armed forces in the Second World War does seem to
suggest a failure of this project, but, as Silvana Patriarca has aptly observed, defeats on
the battlefield were due more to poor organization and tactics than to the morale or
bravery of the troops.95 Many Italian soldiers did, in fact, set off enthusiastically for war
and they certainly fought with much greater commitment to the nation than their fathers
had done in 1915–18.96 Years of Fascist propaganda, marches, rallies and dressing up
in uniform do seem to have had some impact. The role played by uniforms in this
enhanced patriotism and militarism was, however, limited by the fact that the number of
wearers was not, in practice, as great as the visual imagery of the regime might
suggest. Although everyone would have seen party uniforms, whether paraded at
imposing displays and rallies or just worn by local teachers, many Italians themselves
never dressed in this way. Quite apart from the large minority who failed to ever join the
party or one of its affiliated organizations, even among party members, in the later years
of the regime at least, millions lacked a uniform. This could be construed as evidence of
waning support for the regime’s objectives which some historians, like Paul Corner,
suggest is a feature of this period. Even if this was a contributing factor, however, the
changing composition of party 95 Patriarca, Italian Vices: Nation and Character from the
Risorgimento to the Republic, 160. 96 See Brian R. Sullivan, ‘The Italian Soldier in
Combat, June 1940–September 1943: Myths, Realities and Explanations’, in Paul
Addison and Angus Calder (eds.), Time to Kill: The Soldier’s Experience of War in the
West, 1939–1945 (London, 1997). THE NATION IN UNIFORM? FASCIST ITALY,
1919–43 271 Downloaded from
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Edmonton user on 15 February 2024 membership itself was probably more significant.
Many of the ‘Fascists of the eleventh hour’ — those who flocked, in their droves, to the
PNF in the late 1930s — had signed up for reasons that were more opportunistic or
pragmatic than political. Although some of the new members, their childhoods marked
by long membership in the youth organizations, undoubtedly were committed Fascists,
this was far from true of all. Some were people who, although unable to avoid taking out
a party card, were not willing to go a step further and wear the actual uniform, the visual
symbol of the politics of the regime. For others, including those lacking particularly
strong political ideas of any kind, the acquisition of an expensive uniform does not seem
to have been high on their list of priorities. For them, failure to acquire a uniform had
more to do with apathy or indifference than anti-fascism. It would be quite wrong,
however, to assume that all those who failed to obtain a uniform did not actually want
one since the regime’s aim to dress every single man, woman and child as a Fascist
was ultimately impractical in such an impoverished nation. This shoe-string
dictatorship’s attempt to transform the ‘national character’ by encouraging the entire
population to strut proudly around in uniform foundered, in many cases, quite simply on
the shoals of everyday economics. University of Dundee Perry Willson 272 PAST AND
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