Taste, refinement, tailoring, elegance, beauty. When we talk about 'made in Italy' we are describing much more than a style. And, certainly, much more than a product. Made in Italy is an ideal, a lifestyle envied and admired throughout the world, of which Italian women have been proud ambassadors over the years.

This all-Italian femininity that rules the world of fashion today, like all great stories, began with an act of strength and courage. In the 1940s, women made freedom their most important dress; the colours and fabrics sometimes borrowed from men's clothing became the anthem of proud femininity. A far cry from the glossy magazines, but alive and vigorous in our land and still the emblem of the made-in-Italy style today.

After the war, after years of deprivation, those same women regained possession of their image, enriched by the realisation that they could make a difference in the world. Under the banner of a new beginning, tailoring becomes simple and structured, suitable for women who work every day to help rebuild a country.

Popular, bourgeois and aristocratic, femininity takes the shape of a self-aware, free personality that acts and thinks outside the box.

Clothes become the best allies of women who want to tell their stories and make their voices heard, but also rediscover and enhance their bodies without feeling enslaved by rules. From the soft lines of Monica Bellucci, to the subtle beauty of Maria Carla Boscono, to the simplicity of Margherita Buy, today femininity is free.