Moda e Patrimonio Culturale/Fashion and Cultural Heritage

In the European Year for Safeguarding and Enhancing Cultural Heritage, ZoneModa Journal (ZMJ) has dedicated a special issue to the Cultural Heritage of Fashion, a theme that is intrinsically complex but of inestimable wealth for the national and international culture and economy. The problem of conservation, transmission and enhancement of cultural heritage is now at the centre of important international and national debates. Italian policies and more generally those of the European Union provide specific guidelines for programmes to be developed through the use of dedicated IT and web technologies, especially considering the development of Creative Cultural Industries. Fashion has an enormous historical heritage in Italy, and therefore universities, foundations and local authorities are organising to disseminate knowledge, conservation and enhancement of this heritage in the member countries of the European Union and beyond. At the same time, in the last few years — inspired by its own history, but looking to the future — many Italian and European companies have transformed their archives into tools of business competitiveness for Brand Identity and Heritage Marketing. Despite the numerous exhibitions organised in recent years, often based on archival materials, all the same it is still difficult to talk about fashion culture in Italy. The weight of art history, with its separation between minor arts and fine arts, along with a lack of knowledge of fashion dynamics beyond its commercial aspects, underscores old stereotypes that do not seem to take into account either the changes in the art world or the complexity of the spheres in which fashion operates. We hope this issue can be a contribution towards a greater awareness of the culture and practice of fashion in the 21st century.Finally — but no less important — with this issue begins a new phase of the journal, which, thanks to the work done by Antonella Mascio, whom we thank for her dedication and generosity, and by the whole board, has been included in category A in the Anvur sectors 10 (B1, C1, D2, D3, D4, E1, E1, F3, F4, G1, L1, M1, N1) and recognised as a “Scientific journal” in Anvur sectors 08 and 11. With the new direction ZoneModa Journal intends to become an even more relevant tool in Italy and abroad for the dissemination of fashion culture, with a productive openness to criticism and fashion theory.