DEA

“Monthly magazine of fashion” published in Milan from November 1933 to September 1948, with a two-year break near the end of World War II, by Giorgio Pierotti Cei, who also published Allegri Bimbi and Almanacco della Casa. It was born as a sort of catalogue of high fashion Paris styles for the well-off Italian bourgeoisie and aristocracy of the 1920s and 1930s. It had great drawings by Boccasile, Brunetta, Dudovich, Edvi, Lucile, Grau, Menni, and Pica, and photos with short captions. Then it had recipes, letters to the editor, and columns on good manners, beauty, bridge, and furnishings signed by, among others, Dino Falconi, Angelo Frattini, Salvator Gotta, and Rina Simonetta. Beginning in 1935 there was a good deal of interference from the Fascist regime urging sobriety, a spirit of sacrifice and discipline, and the praise of Italian products. Transformed by Lia Pierotti Cei, it lost its elitist character and in October 1940 defined itself as “the Magazine of the Italian Fascist family,” publishing articles translated into German, Hungarian, and Spanish. In January 1948 it was renamed Fortuna.