Portraits of ladies recounts high fashion

Rome's Made-in-Italy week reminisces on the origins of famed Italian moda and elegance

Exhibitions, happenings, and parades made High Fashion a protagonist in Roman life, with numerous events that were a triumph for Made-in-Italy designs.
During the High Fashion Week, which took place in Auditorium Park this summer, sophisticated displays accompanied the parades of the big designers. These included the splendid Ritratti di signora (1840-1940), ["Portraits of ladies, 1840-1940"] prepared by Mara Parmegiani at Palazzo Conservatori on Capitol Hill and at the Montemartini Centre; the exhibition by Bonizza Giordani Aragno devoted to Donne tra Brividi ed Emozioni ["Women Between Shivers and Emotions"]; and the collection of Covers 1988-2002 of Vogue Italia at the Vittoriano.
A return to an historic past by retelling the story of the birth of Italian high fashion through extraordinary dresses. "The elegance of the past must be loved, known, studied, analyzed," wrote Gianfranco Ferré in his introductory essay in Ritratto di signora, published by Matilde Scandurra. "Not in order to reproduce uncritically lines and models that today have no more reason to exist, but to acquire a sort of awareness of our roots, without which future fashion could be devoid of any content. I've always thought that 'creating' means looking ahead, reading the reality where we live, feeling its characteristics, its ferments, its signals of evolution; elaborating complete and original expressions through the filter of individual sensitivity and intuition."
Rome's Vice Mayor Enrico Gasbarra supported Ferrè's opinions with programs and ideal choices. "Rome must return to 'wear' the garments of High Fashion," he explained. "And be a reference for world taste, like in the past. We harbour ambitious projects; new ideas must be conceived, a strong identity asserted, with the purpose of binding art, culture and history in a lasting and visible way. For instance, by allowing designers to exhibit their creations among the prestigious Roman monuments."
This is exactly what happened in Rome. The old Ostiense power plant was 'inhabited' all this month by a century of feminine fashion. Crinolines, sumptuous costumes (such as that of Eugenia of Montijo, Empress of France and wife of Napoleon III, who once, at a court ball, wore a dress decorated with as many as 103 ruches) enriched with embroideries, flounces, sequins, wooden decorations and fine braids.
Mara Parmegiani explores a woman's universe, and the constant political and social change that had a definite influence on fashion. If, in the late 19th century, people still preferred dresses in silk and light fabric (gauze and muslin), and the Parisian Belle Epoque had a liking for black stockings and rustling petticoats (e.g., the undisputed icons of that period: La Belle Otero, Sarah Bernardt, Mata Hari, and Eleonora Duse), the 20th century opened under the sign of sports dynamism and dancing. The new dances (such as tango, foxtrot, and Charleston) imposed a new lifestyle. Straight dresses, clinging waists, wide shoulders, crazy embroideries, application of sequins, pearls and fake jewels designed by Coco Chanel and by Palermo nobleman Fulco di Verdura for sophisticated, eccentric and independent women.
But cinema was instrumental in launching and exporting creativity and Made-in-Italy fashion all over the world. Its penetrative and diffusive strength was enormous: directors like Fellini, Antonioni, De Sica, or Zavattini would exert an influence and spark debates. Actresses and divas like Silvana Mangano, Lucia Bosè, Wanda Osiris, Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren would become myths of collective imagination. In her Portrait of a Lady, Parmegiani reconstructed even the prehistory of fashion in some important chapters, rich of curious anecdotes. The curator of the exhibition underscored that history's first fashion show dates back to around 500 b.C., and was immortalized on a funeral stele at Chiusi, which depicts elegant ladies being shown some cloaks.
In fact, cloaks were in common use. Roman, Persian, Egyptian, Greek women all wore them, in the brightest colours like red, green, yellow, blue or saffron. Those cloaks were used over draped dresses, held on a shoulder with fibulae (buckles) or bound with belts, pleated with a technique invented by the Egyptians around 1550 B.C. The fabric was folded according to a specific pattern and then pressed under heavy stones heated by direct sunlight.
In her book, Parmegiani specifies that "in ancient times, women were masters of seduction. Dresses clung to the body thanks to oval weights sewn inside the hem, and were often slit on the sides or included sheaths, as evidenced by an admirable sculpture (dating back to 1700 B.C.), in leather and rush. And yet, Ovid recommended to the ladies: 'Choose tastefully, as they [the dresses] do not all become you!'."
In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, several Italian women became queens and princesses, and indirectly wrote the best pages in the fashion of their times. Alongside Eleanor of Aquitaine, Mathilda, wife of William the Conqueror, Blanca of Castille, wife of Louis VIII, there were Blanca Maria Sforza, Mannina and Caterina de Medici, and Beatrice d'Este who introduced in European courts the use of sleeves covered in pearls and diamonds, so rich and precious (literally priceless) that they were made so that they could be applied to several dresses. Finally, one last curious detail. Did you know that Titian, Bronzino and Veronese were often called upon to design cartons and fabric patterns? All this is important in order to understand how Italian genius and creativity were particularly liked and appreciated. Especially admired about Italians were their extravagant and sumptuous skills, their grace and sophistication of details, even chromatic.
"Fashion is luxury, glamour, and elegance," wrote Bonizza Giordani Aragno in her splendid book Donne tra Brividi ed Emozioni. She maintains that this is true even on the big screen, mentioning films like The Duchess of Parma, that Alessandro Blasetti set among false aristocrats, bankrupt noblewomen, gamblers and beautiful women with the intention of launching Made-in-Italy as a world-class trademark. Under the same mark, famous fashion designers convene during the night of the Oscars, among divas and stars who use their work as a way to appear and shine.
Giordani Aragno, historian of customs, lists some excellent Italian designers: "Elsa Schiapparelli, for instance, French but born in Rome to a well-known family belonging to the international jet-set, a symbol of esprit nouveau, a friend and collaborator of Cocteau, Marcel Duchamps, and Dali; she counted among her clients the Duchess of Windsor, Norma Shearer, Michel Morgan, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, and Katherine Hepburn."
A full chapter is devoted to Salvatore Ferragamo. Hollywood stars and high-ranking noblewomen have worn his shoes. Countess Spalletti, the Duchess of Modrone, Queen Elena, wife of King Victor Emmanuel III, Evita Peron, Claretta Petacci and Benito Mussolini. The precious book also includes dresses and figures, movie clips, posters and ads and the beautiful dress of the last Queen of Italy, Maria Josè, designed by her husband King Hubert of Savoy. It was made in white velvet of Como, with tail and edge in ermine fur and lace of Brussels. Bonizza Giordani says that "for the royal cape were used six kilograms of gold, and two teams of seamstresses worked for over a month."
The last word goes to Fernanda Gattinoni, than director of the Ventura fashion house, who explains: "The gown had straight lines and sleeves made in lace, so tight that at the last minute they had to be slit open, thus launching a new trend." Much the same would also happen to Edda Mussolini, the Duce's daughter, who married Galeazzo Ciano. Velvet of Como and lace of Burano (a gift from the Senate) for her gown "with innovative lines and lengths," remarks Bonizza Giordani Aragno, "that was later copied by many women. That gown was the mirror of a strong, wilful character, a rebelliousness towards life."

Publication Date: 2002-09-22
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=1762