Italian fashion: style in the world
Armani, Prada, Valentino, Moschino, Versace, Missoni, Trussardi, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Ferrè, Ferragamo, Krizia, Biagiotti, Fiorucci, Cerruti, Cavalli and Pucci. A list of names that features some of the most “acclaimed” Italian stylists, the ambassadors of Italian fashion in the world.
And fashion reminds one of the most caustic and funny “moral literary works” by Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837), “the dialogue between fashion and death”: in fact, the famous Italian writer caught one of the main characteristics of fashion in 1830 that is to say the reason for its endless success: the non-stop need to renew. And that’s how it goes in the context of Italian High Fashion – the one with the capital “a”! – that was born thanks to a nobleman from Florence, the marquis Giovan Battista Giorgini who used to work as a buyer on behalf of a number of American companies. He was aware of the capacity of Italian High Fashion and organized one of the first marketing operations in this field in order to promote the Italian Fashion in the world by holding the first fashion show at his own house in Florence with 170 models by the most famous Italian dressmakers. It was February 12, 1951, it was a great success and set the birth of the Italian High Fashion.
About ten years later, at the end of the 1950s the fashion already represented 17% of the whole manufacturing production in Italy and in that period the prêt-à-porter arrived to our country and contributed to the creation of a different kind of market. Around the 1960s the stylists started to be more clearly defined: they were the ones who didn’t only create the clothes and knew their productive potentialities but they were also able to set the customers’ target by putting together creativity and innovation always considering the production and distribution’s needs. In the third millennium at a geographical level, the Italian “capitals of fashion” are Milan, Florence and Rome, where the most important Maisons’ headquarters are based, and also the main centers of the Italian style and the main advising companies; a number of industrial districts are strictly linked to these areas, they supply raw materials and they are generally highly specialized. For example in Tuscany, in the triangle between Florence, Arezzo and Siena, the fashion field is strongly rooted because of a wide network of medium-sized companies that are linked to the big groups such as Prada, Gucci and Ferragamo.
Did you know that…
The Fontana Sisters were the first to give a lively impulse to the Made in Italy, by making the Italian style very famous in the world. In fact the “Fontana Sisters’ High Fashion” is a company skilled in tailor made clothes that was set in Rome in 1943 by the three Italian sisters. Featured by a peculiar creativity, the three sisters – at the beginning of the 1950s – were requested by the American actress Linda Christian to design the wedding gown she wore when she got married in Rome with the famous actor Tyron Power. The popularity of this event at an international level contributed to the success of the Fontana Sisters above all in Hollywood.
Luciana Francesca Rebonato
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