“We shall create the «new Italian», an Italian who will not resemble yesterday's. Then the generations of those we educate today and create in our image and likeness will become: the legions of the Balilla and the Avant-gardists”.  Mussolini, April 21^st, 1926

Membership of the Balilla National Movement grew exponentially from 1927 to 1934. Balilla membership rose from about 406,000 to almost two million, the Avant-gardists from just over 280,000 to about 536,000, the Little Italian Girls from 364,000 to 1,637,000, the Young Italian Women from over 100,000 to twice this number. In March 1935, Sons of the Wolf was formed, a formation that recruited males and females aged between 6 (or even less) and 8. The members of these organisations wore similar uniforms, basically inspired by those worn by adult fascists: a black shirt, grey-green military-style trousers, socks, boots and a fez as headgear. For female organisations, the basic uniform consisted of a white blouse, a black skirt, white stockings, black shoes and a cap or bag, both black. The orbace, a sturdy but coarse woollen fabric and another of the regime’s hallmarks, was also adopted by the young generations, in keeping with fascism’s determination to become self-sufficient in textile production.