Before the implementation of the EU directive, copyright protection for design works was possible under Italian Copyright Act just for the shapes that allowed a “conceptual distinction” (scindibilità) between esthetic value and useful function. To put it (maybe too) simple: if the design piece could be appreciated in its esthetics alone, regardless to its use, it deserved the protection. Otherwise it did not. This led Italian Courts to exclude copyright protection even to the most iconic design works (like the one in the example above).
After the implementation of the directive, Italian law extended copyright protection to design pieces whose creation implies a creative step and which have, “themselves”, an “artistic value”. The Supreme Court - in several decisions - ruled that artistic value is not just esthetic value, rather it is the result of the transformation of the piece of design, from a mere esthetically enjoyable product, into an actual social icon (which is to be regarded as something different from its simple market success: it’s the fact that the public and the designers recognize in the design something more than just “a product”). This led local Courts to grant copyright protection to a much (too much sometimes) wider range of design products, in particular including also #fashion products.
Then Cofemel decision kicked in and quite some scholars main now think that also Italian law should adopt the "French approach", so - basically - copyright protection shall be awarded in presence of a simple creative work.
In one of their last decisions, however, the Supreme Court Judges ruled that the conceptual distinction still plays a role in the assessment of the artistic value of design. The Court did not state it clearly, but it seems that the conceptual distinction was deemed to be still relevant, in particular, while checking if the design has “itself” an artistic value or not. Will this decision start a new case law and actually induce local Courts to tighten the access to copyright protection for design works in spite of Cofemel "easy" approach?
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