For costume historians and fashion enthusiasts
February 12, 1951 is a watershed date
.
That day a fashion show organized in Florence changed the fate of Italian fashion forever, launching what would later become Made in Italy around the world.
For the 70th anniversary of that first Italian fashion show, Florence remembers it with an international conference celebrating the one who was the organizer, Giovanni Battista Giorgini, whose 50 / o death occurs.
It was Giorgini, marquis and then director of a foreign trade agency, who had the intuition to organize a fashion show: as a location he chose
Villa Torrigiani, his house in via dei Serragli where today a plaque commemorates him
.
Giorgini was again the promoter of the Florence Center for Italian fashion, an organization headed by Pitti Uomo, today chaired by Antonella Mansi, one of the speakers at the conference scheduled for February 12, live from that ballroom of Villa Torrigiani in where it all started.
The celebrations will then continue at Pitti Uomo: in June for the 100 edition Giorgini will be remembered with the launch of his biography and an exhibition.
For the first time, the details of a story that changed the fate of Italian fashion will be brought to light.
Born in Forte dei Marmi (Lucca) in 1898, 'Bista' as everyone called him in a friendly way, was a man of exceptional taste, with a great commercial flair and strong organizational skills.
He knew that at the time Italian fashion was still dependent on French creations, but he sensed that it was the right time for the big leap, to submit the creations to the judgment of the international press and American buyers.
So, that 12 February 1951 he
invited five important US buyers to Florence to whom he presented some models made by a group of important tailors.
On the catwalk - set up in the ballroom of the villa - there were
the creations of Carosa, Fabiani, Simonetta, Schuberth, Fontana, Veneziani, Noberasko, Marucelli, Pucci and Gallotti
.
The next day the Paris Presse wrote: "The bomb of Florence shook the Parisian high fashion salons and threatened their monopoly".
Italian fashion had been launched.
In just one year, exports went from $ 125,000 to $ 1.5 million, in the 1950s-1960s the export of knitwear grew from $ 364,000 to over $ 18 million and the footwear sector rose from $ 125,000 to over $ 23 millions.
So
in July 1952, again at Giorgini's idea, the fashion shows were moved to the Sala Bianca of Palazzo Pitti.
Giorgine directed the organization until 1965, discovering designers such as Roberto Capucci, to name just one
.
The rest is the history of Italian fashion.
