Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/643518
198 BAL HARBOUR ong before Armani, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana—or even Milan Fashion Week—a cadre of designers brought Italian dolce vita to international catwalks in the wake of World War II. Now mostly forgotten, creations by the likes of Roberto Capucci, the Sorelle Fontana and Irene Galitzine helped establish the country as an arbiter of style; together, they created a wearable counterpoint to French haute couture. A new exhibition at the NSU Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale, "Bellissima: Italy and High Fashion 1945-1968," aims to rectify this oversight, allowing these talents to reclaim their place in fashion's pantheon. It tells the story of how Italy's postwar designers shaped the way we dress today via more than 200 curated pieces from the archives and closets of some of Italy's most glamorous women. The key to Capucci and company's success, explains the museum's director, Bonnie Clearwater, is in how they embraced a simpler sense of style. "The Italian designers brought a timeless elegance to contemporary style that influences the ready-to-wear fashion that began to flourish in the 1980s," she says. "Their designs were the forerunners of today's fashion." Fittingly, a trio of contemporary style arbiters, Italians themselves, were tasked with curating this show: W magazine Editor-in-Chief Stefano Tonchi, critic Maria Luisa Frisa and Anna Mattirolo of Rome's MAXXI museum, where the exhibition originated in a more truncated form in 2014. Clearwater points out how appropriate the show's stint stateside will be, given the role America's Marshall Plan played in helping nurture Italy's textile industry in the postwar period. "That was the economic engine that put skilled labor back to work, invested in fashion designers who worked closely with the factories, and marketed the 'Made in Italy' brand as significant," she says, adding that "the emphasis was on exquisite tailoring and wearability, both aspects that appealed especially to the American consumers. This strengthened the trade relations between the countries." Of course, the special relationship went beyond dressmaking: In the postwar period, Rome was becoming such a major hub for moviemaking—especially thanks to its Cinecittà Studios—that the Italian capital earned the nickname Hollywood on the Tiber. "Bellissima" celebrates this kinship, including vintage pieces made for iconic actresses who worked there, such as Ava Gardner, Lana Turner and Kim Novak, plus costumes from movies by directors like Fellini and Visconti, who helped shore up Italy's creative reputation in film. In postwar Italy, it wasn't just film that inspired fashion; the booming art scene provided ample source material, too. The work of Lucio Fontana is featured in the show; his slashed canvases also influenced fashion designer Mila Schön. (It was Schön's monochrome gown that earned Marella Agnelli, wife of Fiat chairman Gianni, the title of best-dressed at Truman Capote's legendary Black & White Ball in New York in 1966.) "Bellissima" includes an extensive textile section, too, displaying samples and vintage advertisements from firms like Faliero Sarti and Marzotto, as well as photos from fashion spreads featuring clothes made from those fabrics. There's even a tribute to the leather goods and accessories by Salvatore Ferragamo and Gucci, among others, which helped cement the reputation of the Made in Italy marque. Yet Clearwater sees this show as more than just a retrospective of Italy's Modernist fashion movement; rather, it helps us understand the earliest origins of contemporary pop culture. "This is the story of how all the creative industries— the designers, the artists, the photographers and the filmmakers of Italy—brought about a new, postwar renaissance that persist today." Bulgari Bib necklace with emeralds, amethysts, turquoise and diamonds, 1965 L PHOTO BY STUDIO ORIZZONTE; COURTESY NSU ART MUSEUM FORT LAUDERDALE