The Fontana Sisters
by Ady Salvatierra
On Thursday March 21st, the Mosaic group visited the Atelier Fontana where we met the youngest Fontana sister’s son’s wife: Luisella Fontana. She showed us iconic dresses that the Fontana sisters designed and contributed to the popularization of Italian fashion. While the atelier is no longer producing dresses like they did in the past, the Atelier Fontana offers classes for students and exhibits the sisters designs around the world. The Atelier Fontana is primarily used for people studying fashion because of its valuable archives. In the morning they allow visits to the fashion archives, and in the afternoon they have classes for students learning fashion design.
In the 1950’s when you spoke about fashion, you only spoke about French fashion. However, when the Fontana sisters moved to Rome and popularized their designs everyone wanted to wear them. The sisters invented the all purpose garment, American women loved it so much there began a shift in attention from French fashion to Italian fashion.Luisella Fontana showed us dresses that the sisters made for 1950’s royalty; some of the stars include Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, and Jacqueline Kennedy.
American women wanted a dress for all day long. Which is why high fashion ready collections were a big success in the United States. Giorgini from Florence, the textile importer, helped popularize the sister’s designs. Their dresses toured the United States always displaying the Italian flag which contributed to the association of Italy and luxury fashion. La Dolce Vita is imperative for the story of Italian fashion. From that film everything developed. Old films made in the period were shot in Cinecitta because it was way cheaper than filming in Hollywood. La Dolce Vita sparked influence from American Hollywood and luxury clothing for stars. Rome was the most important city and most associated with fashion and luxury. Up until the 1980’s fashion from Rome was thriving. However, because of designers like Armani, Milanese fashion rose, fashion and luxury were again redefined.
The Mosaic group at the Sorelle Fontana’s Atelier.