In Praise of Fabric: Italian Interior Design and Its Women (1923–1957)

Textiles are the oldest materials used by humans to delimit the interior space of their home, creating a shell that provides both shelter and refuge. It is not by chance that the English verb inhabit comes from the Latin habitare, which derives in turn from habitus (clothing). Curtains were mankind’s first dwellings, protective shells for a nomadic society that used such textiles as a second skin. Many architecture historians have explored the role of fabric in the origins of architecture. For Gottfried Semper, the first walls may have been woven, from blades of grass and then fibres. Renato De Fusco in his Storia dell’arredamento introduces the concept of “lining”, or the sum of the primary elements that enclose a space (floor, walls, ceiling and openings) and the materials that cover them (such as tapestries, carpets, wallpaper and curtains). This essay looks at a number of Italian designers who, from the 1930s to the 1960s, incorporated textiles into the process of defining the living space and its constituent parts (e.g. curtains, tapestries and carpets). Particular attention is paid to fabric designers Gegia Bronzini, Fede Cheti and Anita Pittoni – three women who helped define modern interior design in Italy through their artisanal work.