“the American Beauty Ideal in Italy: Cosmetic Advertising in the Italian Women’s Magazine Annabella, 1945-1965”

This paper will explore the presence and nature of the American beauty ideal in post-war Italy. Specifically focusing on American and American inspired beauty product advertisements in the Italian women’s magazine Annabella from 1945-1965 the paper will examine the meanings of the post-war American beauty ideal—youth, radiant personality, elegance, and ability to attract the opposite sex— and how they were conveyed in the advertisements. Additionally, the paper will analyze this ideal’s relationship with Italian notions of beauty during the Fascist period, exploring continuities and breaks with the past in the process. For example, during the Fascist period, the American beauty ideal as represented in images of Hollywood stars and the cosmopolitan Modern Girl conflicted with the official image of the Italian woman that Mussolini sought to promote—la donna madre. With the fall of the Fascist regime and the end of the war, the American beauty ideal came to have a prominent presence in Italy as a result of the less regulated nature of the country and its development of an American-style mass consumer society. The invasion of American beauty products that had been available only to a limited segment of the Italian population before the war and their overwhelming promotion in Italian women’s magazines came to have a significant impact on the image of Italian women in the post-war period.