What would the devil wear if it were not Prada? How could you listen to your favourite old-school hip-hop without having Moschino and Gucci name-checked in the lyrics? From Audrey Hepburn’s fifties ensembles in A Roman Holiday, Anita Ekberg’s voluptuous gown in the Trevi fountain in La Dolce Vita, to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Ischian wardrobe in The Talented Mr Ripley, Italian fashion is embedded in the very DNA of Hollywood haute couture. Even their brand logos are the very essence of pop culture – from Versace’s Medusa head and Valentino Red, Gucci’s horse bit and Dolce & Gabbana’s sun-drenched celebration of Sicily, to Fendi’s Baguettes, Bottega Veneta’s Intrecciato weave, Max Mara’s camel coats and Missoni’s zig-zag knits.
The Italian Embassy in Bahrain gave fashion lovers in the Kingdom of Bahrain a unique opportunity to trace the journey of Italian fashion through the prism of its Hollywood popularity with an exquisite exhibition it organised – Racconti di moda italiana (Tales of Italian Fashion), in collaboration with the Shaikh Ebrahim bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Centre for Culture and Research.
Speaking to Life N Style Magazine, maestro Stefano Dominella, Honorary President of the Gattinoni fashion house, thanked HE Paola Amadei, the Italian Ambassador to Bahrain for her championship of the event and without whom the event would not have been possible. “Italy and Bahrain have much in common, as in their rich cultural heritage, traditions, and, of course, fashion. I am more than happy to be hosting this very special exhibition in Bahrain, for the first time in the region”, he added.
The Hollywood Connection
The exhibition, says Mr Dominella, takes you on a magical journey and tells the story of Italian fashion since the 1950s and highlights its Hollywood connection. It was at this time (after the Second World War) that Hollywood movies became obsessed with Italian fashion and its designers.
Rome became Italy’s ‘Hollywood on the Tiber’ when American filmmakers started shifting production overseas. Hollywood stars like Eva Gardner, Audrey Hepburn, and Liz Taylor regularly wore Italian designers, while the Italian costume designer Danilo Donati frequently designed for Italian filmmakers like Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti.
“On display at the exhibition are an amazing array of never-before-seen creations from the historical archives Gattinoni including a collection of the original dresses worn by Hollywood divas like Audrey Hepburn’s ensemble in the 1956 film War and Peace, that we spoke about earlier, as well as the Anita Ekberg’s dress from the iconic Italian film La Dolce Vita, directed by Federico Fellini in 1960.”
Also on display were glamorous creations by giants of Italian fashion like Giorgio Armani, Guillermo Mariotto, Dolce and Gabbana, Missoni, Valentino Garavani, Etro, Gianfranco Ferrè, Gianni Versace, Roberto Cavalli, Pino Lancetti and some of the most important fashion designers of the 1950s such as Emilio Schuberth, Tita Rossi and Jole Veneziani.
Maison Gattanoni
Maison Gattinoni has been in fashion for 77 years and is a powerhouse of Italian fashion. “We designed Audrey Hepburn Oscar-winning costumes for the 1956 film War and Peace and just this year we have designed dresses for Beyonce – so you can see we have a rich, illustrious history as well as a robust presence even today”, said Mr Dominella.
Gattinoni was favoured by such fashion pioneers as Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Ingrid Bergman, Eva Perón, among others.
The late Fernanda Gattinoni was celebrated by Hollywood stars of the 1950s and 1960s for creating strikingly elegant designs worn both on and off the silver screen.
An intense attention to quality and detail combined with innovation is what makes Italian fashion exceptional. The humble, highly skilled, talented people working in Italian mills who make these incredibly sophisticated, complicated designs are indeed praiseworthy. Often people think fashion can be frivolous and not vital, but there’s a humanity behind the gloss of Italian fashion that’s really beautiful and it needs to be celebrated with exhibitions like these more often.
