Why are there so few books on fashion in Italy?

Few days ago Andrea Batilla announced on Instagram the publication of his new book by Gribaudo on November 25th, since then, although it has not yet been released, Alfabeto della Moda has quickly won the title of best-selling product in the fashion and design section of Amazon and then climbed the first position in the best seller category for a few days, while the places for the presentation at Bookcity Milano 2021 sold out in less than half an hour. Books about fashion and the Italian publishing market still know how to give emotions, but small publishing houses are often the only ones to bet on it, focusing on accessible books - both in terms of price and readability - and looking at a young audience interested in content rather than in the mere product. For example, Rizzoli, one of the giants of Italian publishing, for the release of Marcelo Burlon: County of Milan Confidential has chosen the form of a photographic coffee table, a format that enhances the images and the iconicity of the product but limits an incredible story - suitable for a novel or TV series - of the streetwear revolution that started from the door of the Magazzini Generali and came to upset a global industry. The coffee table aims at a high spending audience, excluding that part of readers - often young - who do not want or can spend 85 euros on glossy or laminated paper, publications that can be classified more as a marketing initiative than as a real editorial operation, as they are commissioned by the brand itself.

According to Arianna Cavallo, editor at Il Post, publishing expert and fashion enthusiast, editorial trends are the mirror of "a very widespread attitude towards fashion not only in the publishing world but in the cultural world in general, often considered something negatively frivolous and ephemeral, one imagines that it is only of interest to superficial people who spend disproportionate amounts on the latest designer garment. Instead, fashion is full of stories that can fascinate even those who do not give too much importance to how they dress". According to the AGI, Italian publishing is to close the year with double-digit growth, between 11% and 16%, for a turnover of between 1.6 and 1.7 billion euros. In a growing market such as the publishing market, fashion is a subject that publishing has snubbed - have you ever seen how depressing the fashion & design corner of a Feltrinelli or a Mondadori is? One way to challenge the cliché that "young people" in Italy do not read can be to delve into the forgotten fashion stories of history, without delegating the task to brands. A branded product is more likely to be beautiful and salable - like the big books of Prada or Chanel fashion shows - but it lacks the problematic and impartial vision that an expert or a journalist can have.

“Fashion is not often explained and narrated in a simple way, so there is a lot of curiosity to understand how it works and to know its history a little more. Hence the success of TV series and documentaries on models and stylists and the following of fashion communicators on social media such as Batilla, who, thanks to his online cortege, has published two books on the subject."

Arianna Cavallo

Against the myth that all influencers who write books need a ghostwriter, Batilla managed to explain fashion to Gen Z, commenting on the fashion shows with his pungent irony and telling his followers all the background that insiders take for granted, through this 'spontaneous strategy' his writings have become an editorial phenomenon capable of moving a fossilized market. Whether Andrea Batilla, teacher and consultant for historical brands, can be classified as an influencer  is actually a legitimate question, perhaps because we are not used to the idea that a truly competent person can boast 50k followers on social networks and above all because in the last few years it seems that only influencers have had the opportunity to write books, the non-fiction department has been dazzled by the phenomenon of influencers and publishing houses have preferred their biographies to content stories - "an editorial choice linked above all to the author - an influencer can guarantee the sale of a certain number of copies thanks to its followers - rather than the desire to rethink the story of fashion, but it could pave the way and attract the interest of other publishing groups that so far have limited themselves to biographies of Chanel and expensive coffee tables aimed at enthusiasts".

The previous Instant Moda, first gave rise to an editorial case, then to a long seller then a must have in the library of any lover of the sector. In the new book, Batilla narrates the multiverse of past and contemporary fashion, also touching on those themes that apparently are distant, such as the cultural constructions that over the centuries have built categories such as fat, thin, masculine, effeminate, fascinating a generation like that of wokeness that has well understood that fashion is not just clothing, but also the manifestation of the ideology of an era or a community. Perhaps to bring something new to the Italian publishing market it would be enough to look at the younger readers rather than the middle aged ones who only read books winner of the Strega awards.