Everyone knows that he was the 'father of Italian fashion', but few know the long journey that led
Giovanni Battista Giorgini to organize the legendary fashion show on 12 February 1951 at Villa Torrigiani
.
The event with which Italian fashion took its first steps on the international scene, and then moved, again based on Giorgini's idea, to the Sala Bianca of Palazzo Pitti.
And hardly anyone knows that the birth of Italian fashion almost took place in New York instead of in Florence.
'GB Giorgini and the origins of Made in Italy' edited by Neri Fadigati, nephew of the Marquis and president of the Giorgini Archive, tells this extraordinary story, which concerns not only the birth of Italian fashion but that of Made in Italy, and through a profound re-reading of the Giorgini Archive, the enormous documentation he himself left, relating to both his private and working life.
That of a man, as his nephew recounts who, brought to the deathbed of his ninety-year-old grandfather, dying but very clear-headed, said to him "Bistra, I leave you my name, do him honour".
A phrase that marked the destiny of the man to whom we owe the birth of Italian fashion.
The new volume, presented in Rome, in the National Roman Museum, Palazzo Altemps,
Not only the historical photos from the archive are revealed, but also letters, invitations, programs, articles and other materials of the time.
This is joined by the choral story of great Italian and international brands, such as Gian Luca Bauzano, Daniela Calanca, Grazia d'Annunzio, Eva Desiderio and Sonnet Stanfill, whose pens trace the life of Giovanni Battista Giorgini, starting from his first travels in the 1920s in America, where he offered buyers a sampling of our best handcrafted products.
In these trips, after the war, Giorgini noticed the great social and style change that the United States was experiencing.
Paris exerted a great fascination overseas, but his fashion was elaborate, pompous and above all expensive.
The buyers did not see the
time to find simple clothes with which to fill the windows of their department stores, frequented by young women busy between work and family.
Hence the idea of organizing a large fashion show of Italian clothes on the occasion of the Italy at Work exhibition.
The idea went up in smoke due to the rejection of the B. Altman & Co. department store. Giorgini however did not give up and decided to bring the fashion show project to his city with names such as Simonetta, Schuberth, Fontana, Marucelli, Veneziani, Fabiani, Galitzine , Emilio Pucci, Roberto Capucci, Valentino and many others.
So it was because of this American denial that Italian fashion was born in Florence and not in New York.
The volume opens with the contributions of those who knew Giorgini, such as the stylist Roberto Capucci, and of great fashion personalities such as Ferruccio Ferragamo, Laudomia Pucci,
In the volume the contributions of Roberto Capucci: "I greatly appreciated the work done by his nephew Neri Fadigati...".
Di Ferruccio Ferragamo: "I hope that young people can find many stimuli and proof that in a continuum with the past, emerging talent and creativity will give new impetus to the sector".
But also by Laudomia Pucci, Antonella Mansi and many others.