Fifty years of Italian fashion in an exhibition featuring legendary singer Mina

Fashion does more than dress bodies: it shapes imagination and generates culture, restlessly expanding its boundaries. And in Italy, between the 1950s and the 1990s, it became a language, a narrative, and a myth—thanks in part to its close partnership with advertising, of which it became a privileged laboratory.

“Fashion and Advertising in Italy 1950–2000”, the exhibition hosted at the Fondazione Magnani-Rocca in Parma until December 14, 2025, documents this creative atmosphere that defined Italy in the postwar years, portraying a fertile era in which the history of fashion and the evolution of television intertwined to shape the new identity of “Made in Italy”.

Over 300 works—including posters, TV commercials, photographs, magazines, and original garments—recount an age of experimentation and daring creativity: from the pedagogical austerity of the 1950s Caroselli to the aesthetic revolutions of the 1980s and 1990s, when great designers and advertising creatives turned the commercial image into an art form—first illustrated and artisanal, later self-reflective and postmodern

Photographs by Gian Paolo Barbieri, Giovanni Gastel, Alfa Castaldi and Oliviero Toscani; the campaigns of Gucci, Versace, Moschino, Armani and again Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Fiorucci, Zegna and Ferré, along with the illustrations of René Gruau, Guido Crepax, Antonio Lopez and the creations of Armando Testa: all contribute to econstructing the identity evolution of a country that suddenly had the tools to make its mark on the international stage, defining new aesthetic and cultural models.

A special section of the exhibition is also dedicated to Mina and her enduring collaboration with Barilla, for which she served as both face and voice in over sixty Carosello commercials between 1965 and 1970. Recognizing the singer’s exceptional role in shaping and promoting fashion, the Foundation celebrates this creative partnership with a selection of original costumes—based on models designed by Oscar-winning costume designer Piero Gherardi—and archival film footage from the Barilla Historical Archive.

Exhibition: Moda e Pubblicità in Italia 1950-2000 Curated by: Dario Cimorelli, Eugenia Paulicelli and Stefano Roffi Location: Fondazione Magnani-Rocca, Parma, Italy Dates: From September 13, 2025 to December 14, 2025