Fashion, migration and identity in Italian cinema: The case of Billo il grand dakhaar and Bangla

This article analyses the insightful role that fabric, fashion and clothing shops have in Laura Muscardin’s Billo il grand dakhaar (Billo the Grand Dakhaar) (2008) and Phaim Bhuiyan’s first feature film Bangla (2019). Billo portrays the story of a young tailor from Senegal who dreams of becoming a fashion designer in Rome; Bangla fictionalizes the life of its director, Phaim Bhuiyan, a second-generation Italian of Bangladeshi descent. By analysing flashbacks and dream sequences as signifiers of cultural ties and by examining the role of the shops as emblematic spaces where the local and the transnational forge a new intersecting reality, the article aims to investigate how both protagonists become active agents of change and how fashion contributes to the reshaping of the landscape of the city of Rome.