Untold Histories of Fashion, Crafts, Artisanship, and Style in the Archives of Italy’s Former Colonial Museum in Rome

This article introduces the collection of Italy’s former Colonial Museum (founded in 1923), now held in the Museo delle Civiltà in Rome, to the international readership of the Journal of Design History as a valuable resource for further research in the fields of fashion history, global design history, and material culture history. It examines fashion and textile artifacts once featured in an itinerant trade show linked to Italy’s former Colonial Museum, tracing their histories through an analysis of four key objects. Now archived, these artifacts once circulated as colonial commodities and were displayed at international fairs, serving as material witnesses to the intertwined histories of colonialism and fashion. By highlighting the intersections of colonial exhibitions and commerce, the article underscores the globalizing dimensions of colonialism and fashion. The study contributes new perspectives to design history during Italy’s colonial period, demonstrating how examining colonial artifacts enriches and deepens our understanding of the enduring colonial legacies within the global fashion system.