Explore the history of department stores and fashion in Italy
On 25 and 26 September, Bocconi University and the Milan Public Library System held Ricerca, Trova as part of European Researchers’ Night 2026. The initiative aimed to bring research closer to the community by turning libraries into spaces for dialogue, exchange and participation.
As part of the initiative, Library & Archives produced two educational videos about the history of department stores and fashion in Italy, designed to make academic research accessible to younger and adult audiences.
The videos draw on the 2021 research article “Fashion, product innovation, and consumer culture in the late 19th century: Alle Città d’Italia department store in Milan” by Elisabetta Merlo (Bocconi University) and Carlo Marco Belfanti (University of Brescia).
Artificial intelligence tools were used to explore new ways of communicating research and reworking historical images, making historical sources and collections more accessible.
Department stores and fashion in late nineteenth-century Milan
When did shopping as we know it begin? In the late nineteenth century, the Bocconi brothers’ Alle Città d’Italia department stores, which would later become La Rinascente, helped transform people’s relationship with fashion and consumption. Their sales catalogues, distributed free of charge, brought products and new arrivals into people’s homes. They also introduced innovative services, including the option to order and return goods by post. In doing so, they helped spread a consumer culture increasingly shaped by choice, fashion and desire.
The Origins of Department Stores
The video is in Italian.
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How Did People Shop from Home in the Late Nineteenth Century?
Video for younger viewers, in Italian.
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