The Birth Of Italian Fahion

THE BIRTH OF HIGH FASHION ITALIAN STYLE

Perhaps not everyone knows that until the end of the nineteenth century fashion di not exist, everything was entrusted to the work of individual tailors.

The real consecration of high fashion, however, takes place in the early 1900s on the occasion of the International Exhibition at the Papillon d’Elegance where the old tailors transformed into “maisons” (fashion houses) presented their creations for the first time at a international audience.

Italy instead began operating in high fashion in 1949, after the war. Italian fashion becomes an international cult when the Sorelle Fontana jump into the limelight thanks to the wedding dress created for Linda Christian on the occasion of her marriage to Tyrone Power.

Those years in which the Americans took possession of Cinecittà and the cinema from that moment brought a lot of work to the Fontana sisters but also to the new rising designers such as: Emilio Federico Schubert, Valentino, Roberto Cappucci, Iole Veneziani, Biki, Germana Marucelli.

The boom of the 1950s allowed Italy to compete with countries such as France, which has always been a leader in the sector.

The first Italian fashion show, to which the birth of Italian high fashion is traced back, takes place in Florence by the Marquis Giovanni Battista Giorgini who on February 12, 1951 organized the “First Italian High Fashion Show” in his Florentine home.

With strong determination he manages to convince the presidents of the American warehouses to come to Florence the day after the Paris fashion shows and organizes a show with ten Italian designers, each of whom presented with eighteen models. On February 12, 1951, launch at his own Florentine residence, featured Emilio Schuberth, Sorelle Fontana (the Fontana sisters), Contessa Simonetta Visconti, Roberto Capucci, and Alberto Fabiani from Rome, Jole Veneziani of Milan, and Florentine-born Caprese designer Emilio Pucci.

The group of buyers returned to America enthusiastic and when Giorgini organized the second show, 300 people came from America. It was a resounding success, so much so that the municipality of Florence, for the following show, authorized the use of Palazzo Strozzi first and Palazzo Pitti then.

Before Giorgini’s shows, the commercial phenomenon of fashion did not exist.

The high fashion houses, in fact, only sold to private individuals. Meanwhile, from 1958 to 1963, the great boom increased consumption by 5%. and exports went from a deficit of 187 billion to a positive of 124.3 billion.

Many designers began to create ready-to-wear haute couture, that is the high-fashion product tailored to be usable not only by an elite.

The most important boutiques began to sell no longer made-to-measure clothes but packaged in sizes, therefore adaptable to all customers and at lower costs. The quality of the clothes is however very high, also thanks to the materials used: in fact, precious fabrics are used, second only to the English ones.

The most important boutiques began to sell no longer made-to-measure clothes but packaged in sizes, therefore adaptable to all customers and at lower costs. The quality of the clothes is however very high, also thanks to the materials used: in fact, precious fabrics are used, second only to the English ones.

Giorgio Armani S.p.A. was born in 1975, launching a line of men’s and women’s “prêt-à-porter” and opening eleven new stores. In 1981 the brand established itself as a great world brand with the presentation of its first perfume and the opening of stores all over the world.

Among the great Italian names in the world, that of Valentino Clemente Ludovico Caravani, alias Valentino, also makes its way. After working for years in Guy la Roche’s tailor’s shop, Valentino understands that his way is fashion and so, with the financial help of his father, he opens an atelier in via Condotti, the most “in” street in Rome in those years.  On 1962, the Marquis Giorgini granted him the last hour of the last day at the Palazzo Pitti fashion show: his clothes were so successful that Vogue Francia dedicated two pages to him for the first time.

In the early 1970s, Valentino was so famous that Andy Warhol painted a portrait of him. At the end of that decade, he too expands his name and style to other products such as perfumes and accessories. In the mid-1980s he was awarded by President Pertini the “honor of great officer of the order of merit of the Italian Republic”.

Laura Biagiotti creates a group in Milan with Albini, Missoni, Krizia and subsequently Armani to present a product that is more in keeping with reality on the catwalks.

She was the first to face new markets and to go to China in 1988, and then, after the fall of the wall, to Moscow in the great theater of the Kremlin. This is how many more commercial joint ventures and second-line collections are born.

When stylists decide to extend their brand to accessories, in the belief that the complement is essential to make a beautiful dress, the empire of Italian fashion in the world is consecrated. This phenomenon, in fact, was initially a purely Italian phenomenon, and only later was it copied abroad as well.

The market expands further and becomes global, and fashion is used to launch everything from cars to televisions.

Currently, Italian fashion is one of the healthiest export sectors and the highest growth rates have been found in China and Russia.

Made in Italy, the result of a long and fruitful cooperation between culture, art, craftsmanship, manufacturing skills, territory, and historical memories, has managed to build, over the years, the most important Western supply chain, and however much the Chinese try to copy it by making a fierce competition, they will not be able to achieve its same objectives.

This success is mainly due to the ability to be able to create their own fabrics, their own prints, to be able to have accessories in line with the style of the collection, and this thanks to the fact that from yarn to weaving, from dyeing to cutting, to packaging, and to the whole world of accessories, the product is all Made in Italy.

So, although the Italian model has now become reproducible, it is also true that our system has something inimitable within it: the combination of creativity and technology that other markets do not possess and which ensure that Italian style has become synonymous in the world of fashion and luxury.