FASHION: Italy's Renaissance (original) (raw)

TIME

February 4, 1952 12:00 AM GMT-5

In their biggest bid to capture Paris’ high-fashion trade, most of Italy’s top designers showed off their spring & summer creations last week in Florence’s Grand Hotel. As usual, the Italians were at their best in sportswear and play clothes, and none was better than Milan’s blonde, fortyish Jole Veneziani, a onetime furrier who went into dress-designing only six years ago.

Where most designers show only a handful of originals, industrious Mme. Veneziani startled everybody by reeling off so many -(130, mainly sportswear) that she had her mannequins parade four and five at once to save time. When she was done, even her rivals cast aside professional jealousy to swarm around her, crying, “Bravissimo!n and bussing her plump cheek. Overcome, Veneziani broke down and wept. Said a California department-store buyer: “The entire American sports world should have been here!”

Half Price. Not only in Florence, but in Rome, Milan and other major cities, the Italian renaissance of fashion is in full swing. Less than two years ago, Italy’s designers were scarcely known outside their own country. But U.S. buyers, fed up with Paris’ high prices and highhandedness, have been spending more & more money in Italy. The clothes are excellent and sell for only about half as much as Paris’. Last week’s ranges: 200to200 to 200to250 for suits, 250to250 to 250to450 for cocktail dresses and short formal gowns, 300to300 to 300to450 for most ball gowns.

The renaissance is due chiefly to the shrewd promotion of Florence’s exporter, B. Giorgini, who realized that Italy’s designers were too scattered for buyers to see all their work. Last February he footed the bill himself (in return for a 5% commission on all sales) for the first collective showing in Florence by most of the top designers. That show and another last summer were such successes that there were shows all over Italy last week, and U.S. buyers were hard put to catch them all.

Cause for Worry. The most elaborate show piece (cost $750) was a silver-white evening dress, which Rome’s Alberto Fabiani had lavishly embroidered with beads, buttons and tiny seashells. Fabiani also showed a shirtlike beach smock, in white and red cotton squares with a white pique collar, so long that it hides the bathing suit and so puffy that it resembles a maternity blouse. Other eye-catchers: the butterfly-winged cape which Princess Gabriella di Giardinelli (“Gabriellasport”) designed for her yellow silk evening gown; a short evening dress of black lace on white organdie by the Fontana sisters; a white wool pullover, with close-fitting slacks, by Milan’s Mirsa. Not only U.S. buyers, but Europeans, flocked to the salons. Plainly, the Italians were giving the French plenty of cause for worry.

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