Why did fascists wear black

Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler stand together on an reviewing stand during Mussolini's official visit in Munich. Wikimedia Commons.

One hundred years ago, in March , Benito Mussolini created the fascist party in Italy. At the end of World War II, he was shot by a firing squad for his crimes. His body was publicly hung upside down. His life offers deep, cautionary insights for contemporary politics. Mussolini was born in the small Italian town of Predappio in After qualifying as a teacher, he joined the socialists, who believed in public ownership of property. He was arrested and jailed by the government for promoting strikes.

His advocacy in support of World War I brought him into conflict with the socialist party, which expelled him. Wounded while serving in the Italian military, he was discharged and began working as a journalist. Thereafter, Mussolini received funding from the British secret service to publish pro-war propaganda in his newspaper. In , he announced that the fascist movement was becoming a political party. As the leader of fascism, Mussolini pushed for the growth of the Italian population.

He believed a larger population was necessary for the nation to function as a world-class military power. He also regarded Africans and Asians as inherently inferior. View all related items in Oxford Reference ». Search for: 'blackshirt' in Oxford Reference ». All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single entry from a reference work in OR for personal use for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice.

Oxford Reference. Publications Pages Publications Pages. Recently viewed 0 Save Search. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Subscriber sign in You could not be signed in, please check and try again. But he certainly cast an envious eye at the stylish uniform designed by one of the best-dressed men in Europe, noted with interest the speeches delivered from a balcony, and the well-dressed if thuggish followers. Adolf Hitler, for his part, recognized the excellent and simple design of the Communist flag, which waved and fluttered above well-dressed marchers.

Both dictators in training learned from the modern modes of asserting power and turned away from metals and feathers. That said, both Mussolini and Hitler would retain certain sartorial details from the past to gesture towards prestige.

Fascism may be merely fashionable, and perhaps fashion with its irrepressible promiscuity of taste will save us.. There is a general fantasy about uniforms. They suggest community, order, identity through ranks, badges and medals, things which declare who the wearer is and what he has done: his worth is recognized. But uniforms are not the same thing as photographs of uniforms—which are erotic materials and photographs of SS uniforms are the units of a particularly powerful and widespread sexual fantasy.

Why the SS? It was in the SS that this assertion seemed most complete, because they acted it out in a singularly brutal and efficient manner; and because they dramatized it by linking themselves to certain aesthetic standards. The SS was designed as an elite military community that would not only supremely violent but also supremely beautiful..

SS uniforms were stylish, well-cut, with a touch but not too much of eccentricity. Compare the rather boring and not so very well cut American army uniform: jacket, shirt, tie, pants, socks, and lace-up shoes—essentially civilian clothes no matter how bedecked with medals and badges.

SS uniforms were tight, heavy, stiff and included gloves to confine the hands and boots that made the legs and feet feel heavy, encased, obliging their wearer to stand up straight. SS Uniforms. As most people know, the Nazi uniforms were designed by a dedicated Nazi, Hugo Boss , but the designer of the uniforms of the Italian fascists is less well known. Paolo Garretto , in his own time, he was a very famous graphic designer, the Italian equivalent to the French Cassandre.

Although he fell into obscurity, he was discovered by the design historian and theorist, Stephen Heller, who was able to correspond with the artist before his death. As for the rest of their uniform, they wore anything they liked, such as long pants of any color.

So I designed for myself a uniform that was all black — shirt, cavalry pants, and boots. My friends who liked the attire copied it. The color black was both chic and threatening. What Garretto contributed was an all-black uniform, supposedly referencing a machinist uniform, created an aesthetically impressive presence.

At the time of The March on Rome, the squadristi were a band of badly dressed unruly brutal males assaulting Rome itself, demanding that Mussolini should be rewarded the office of the Prime Minister in gratitude to the crushing of the Communist threat.

Given that the squadristi or Blackshirts continued their violence even after the stunned Communists capitulated, their presence was useful but possibly destabilizing. The March, seen by many at the time as another example of massed criminality, was retold later as a heroic event that was cemented into party mythology. It is no accident after the disorderly March that the story of the design of the uniforms continued in when, after the March, Mussolini became the Italian prime minister.

His early followers, the Blackshirts, were violent thugs, rather like the precursor group to the SS, the SA. Mussolini knew that part of his credibility rested upon his separating himself from unorganized violence and he controlled the violence the Blackshirts, legitimated it, and named these low-level criminals: Volunteer Militia for National Security Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale , or MVSN.