Benutzer:L-L.Richter/Simonetta Colonna di Cesarò English version

Simonetta Colonna di Cesarò (*10th.04.1944, † 26th.09.2011) ^[1] was an Italian fashion designer, that had great success. Her career began in post war Italy and built up from there.

Simonetta Colonna di Cesarò was born in Rome, the 10th of April 1922, as the daughter of Barbara Antonelli and Giovanni Colonna Romano.

Her mother had on the maternal side an origin in Russian aristocracy and taught the young girl elegance and cosmopolitans.

Giovanni Colonna Romano was elected to the parliament and later, in 1922 appointed Minister of Telegraph Services and Postal, in the first Mussolin government. „[H]e resigned in 1924, addressing the parliament of fiercely denouncing the abuses and crimes of the regime“ ^[2]. Because of these accusations, he was held under police surveillance. He died in 1940.

But also the young woman Simonetta came in trouble withe the strict fascistic Mussolin government. She was sentenced to internal exile and also spent 15 days in women's prison. In 1944 Simonetta married Galezzo Visconti di Modrone, the ceremony was held without any public except, only an obligatory witness and one of her cousins. In the same year Simonetta, her husband, her sister and their fiancé were sent to prison for two months, because they were accused to support the resistance. They were released in June 1944, shortly before the liberation of Rome by the Allies.^[3]

In 1947 Simonetta  Visconti gave birth to her first child, Verde, in Switzerland. Over the course of 1949 Simonetta obtained her divorce from Gaio Visconti. ^[4]

She married her second husband, the designer Alberto Fabiani, in 1952. The couple lived in a villa on the Appia Antica, in Rome. ^[5]

On the 25th of July 1953 their joint son Bardo, ^[6] who later became a photographer, was born. The same year the brand changed the name to „Simonetta“.

In the late 60s/early 70s Simonetta became interested in eastern philosophy and decided to leave Europe and the fashion game in 1972, to move to India. Her marriage from Fabiani was divorced in 1973. In 1985 she moved back to Europe and lived between Paris and Rome. Simonetta Colonna di Cesarò died at the age of 89, on the 26th of September in 2011. ^[7]

After the 2nd World War the Italian aristocracy was not swimming in money, but still Simonetta opened her first fashion house in spring 1946 at the second floor of her family house on Via Gregorinan, under the name „Visbel“. The name was an acronym of her married name Visconti and that of her business partner. After the partnership broke down just after a few months, she renamed her label to her full name „Simonetta Visconti“. ^{[8] [9]}

Because she began just shortly after World War II, there was a lack, there was a lack of fabric, sewing machines and so on. But still Simonetta Visconti sent out her first collection made up of fourteen models, using „dishtowels and linings, gardening smocks and butler's uniforms, curtain rings and bits of ribbon, tape, string and raffia“ ^[9]. And managed to make clothes out of „ingenious poverty“ ^[9] as said Irene Brind said.

Although she had to face a lot of restrictions the Italian press saw her talent, welcomed and „hailed her as the youngest and most promising couturier in Italy“ ^[9]

Her flagship were  unconstrained creations, showing creativity and craftsmanship in an Italian manner. To be characterized as Italian was really important for Simonetta, as the Italian fashion tried to find its own identity and break away from the dictate of Parisian couture, later seen at  the fashion shows organized by Battista Giorgini in 1951.

Simonetta Visconti's creations became beloved from national and international magazines. In spring 1947 some of her items were featured in the high fashion magazine „Bellezza“, photographed by Pasquale de Antonis.^[10]

A photo series, „Black on the Beach“, shot at Capri, by Clifford Coffin, was published by the British Vogue in November 1948 (p.60-61). Modeling for the series were Simonetta's sister Mita, her husband Uberto Corti and the Count and Countess Crespi. They wore „ ´the covered up look´„^[11] and couple shoots celebrated „´the cult of identical shirts for men and women´“ ^[11] and the „´passion for popeline´"^[11], as the anonymous writer described it the brief text. The pieces of the outfits were loose blouse, without formal fitting collars, the lower body was covered in trousers (long ones oder short Bermudas) and skirts that opened out in soft folds. The name of series, referred to the star of the collection: black popeline. ^[11][4]

The first big event to promote Italian fashion after world war two, was arranged by Giovanni Battista Giorgini, later also „known in Italy as 'Il Papa’ of fashion“^[12].

He organized a fashion show, in his Florentine residence, Villa Torrigiani, at the 14th February 1951. ^[13]

Giorgini contacted the High Fashion Houses of Italy with a letter, showing off his connections to the American market, that he maintained since 1923 and explaining his idea of an all Italian fashion show, that should take place in the 2nd week of February, since the Parisians presented in the first week of February. He continued, with the facts:

„Date:-second week in February and August for each year. Place: Florence. Procedure: each High fashion House will present a minimum of twenty outfits (morning, afternoon, cocktail, evening) worn by one, or if possible two of its own models. Each House will pay for the expenses indicated above and will pay 25.000. Lire to the Ufficio Giorgini in our expenses involving in organizing the event and greeting the guests. Sales: these will be negotiated directly between the House and the foreign buyers. In the interest of the House themselves, it is an explicit requirement that the outfits which will be presented be of exclusive an original Italian design.[…]"^[14].

Simonetta later commented on Giorgini's efforts as revolutionary, even if it does not seem so in nowadays time, “But, at that time, fashion was a monopoly of French designers. Their word was law„^[15].

Giorgini managed to organize the show in just one month time and convinced nine designers to showcase. The so called „pilot couturiers“ ^[16],showed their creations to the visitors „mostly representatives of the trade world press and of the most important department stores in North America“ ^[12]. Giorgini was practically begging them to continue their shopping after they already spent their money at the Parisian shows. He managed to get a few, but some of the most important buyers to come to Florence, such as Stella Hanania for I.Magnin of San Francisco, Gertrud Ziminsky of B. Altman & Co, of New York, Ethel Francau, Jessica Daves, and Julia Trissel of Bergdorf Goodman and John Nixon of Henry Morgan. Expect for them there were also some uninvited guests: Hannah Troy, a New York designer, as well as Martin Cole and Balbo and Ann Roberts. All together could gaze about the designs of Carosa, Fabiani, Simonetta, the Fontana sisters, Schuberth, Vanna, Noberasco, Marucelli and Veneziani ₃₁ showing 180 models in total. ^[17]

In the end Gertrude Ziminsky, from B.Altman said “it was worth the trip“^[18].

An article publishes by the Women's Wear Daily read about Simonetta Visconti:

[She] presented resort-wear, including amusing black poplin bloomers with crimson ribbons under a full crimson cotton skirt, and a gilded straw, baretopped bodice with ballooning puckered skirt of black shantung accessorized with a straw flask bag from Bertoli.“ ^[13].“During the period of those early shows Simonetta […], was already a star of stunning beauty, whose photographs appeared in major fashion magazine“^[16] like Vogue.

The second show was a three day event, starting on Thursday the 19th of July ending on Saturday the 21st and took place in the ballroom Grand Hotel, as the invitation said. The end of the event was celebrated in a Ball at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Giorgini, Torrigiani Garden- via serragli 144. ^{[19] [20]}

Beppe Modenese said „ Giorgini knew America, the mentality and the snobbish vulnerability of the Americans. He hoped that Florence and her patrician homes and society could be a powerful tool […]" ^[18]

According to Life magazine the number of American buyer attending the show raised immensely, 9 Us buyers saw the show in February while in July there were more than 170 leaders of US fashion world attending the event. „The Americans liked the beautiful fabrics and the half Parisian prices and urged Georgini to repeat the show […] “^[20]

But Life magazine also pointed out a problem of the newly raising Italian couture- its geographic dispersion. Out of the 11 designers that showed their creations, there were some located in Turin (f.e. Favro), others in Milan (f.e. Murucelli, Noberasco), Capri (Baroness Gallotti), Florence or Rome. No comparison to the centered fashion system of France.

Besides the main article „Italy gets dressed up“ there was also an individual text about Simonetta in the issue, titled „Glamour girl of Italian designers“. Life portrayed Simonetta as a young women with a mannequin body features and long black hair, that „ after war- to make a living-began to designing small sports-and boutique-type clothes“ ^[20] „And within two years [...] was able to open a large chandeliered showroom in Rome“ ^[20]. Concluding a: hard working woman, presenting 3 collections a year and working 6 days a week, that sold 70 models (covering $250-300) at the Florence showing.^[20]

Italian fashion was decentralized, which created some problems, as Life magazine already ´predicted´. In the third edition of „Italian High Fashion Show“. Simonetta and Fabiani decided not to show there collections in Florence anymore, instead they were presenting in Rome, Simonetta in her atelier in Via Gregoria. ^{[21] [22]}

But for the Eights edition of the „Italian High Fashion Show“ in July 1954 they returned to the Florentine family.^[23] Probably because the runway presentations in Rome were held simultan to the ones in Florence, so that most buyers and journalists would often not stop in Rome and instead go from Paris directly to the Florence Shows, still organized by Giorgini. Not only the fashion shows, but also (thirteen) different organizations occupied the national Italian fashion. Hannah Troy, said about this affair, that the buyers and journalists of the entire world still come to Florence, in respect for Giorgini.

To draw a conclusion on the importances of these early Italian shows and the role of Giovan Battista Girogini, quoting „The Italian Look“ „Fortune“ March 1951: „[Giorgini] is also first president of Italy's official fashion association and he has given the industry the prestige of Dior and the efficiency of Macy's. […] The revenue developing out of Giorgini's twice yearly shows is estimated at 7 million dollars a year. But this is only a token of what his initiative has meant to Italy. After Made in Italy became a proud fashion label, Italian sales of all kinds to the U.S. boomed.[…] According to Giorgini, the end isn't in sight. ´We exported 208 million dresses, suits, and other items in 1950 and 25 billion in 1958. This kind of growth will continue as long as we maintain the reputation of Italian Fashion.´With a heritage extending back to Boticelli, the exhuberant Italian designers intend to do just that.“ ^[13]

Simonetta stepping in the eye of the American customer, might started with a featured that the American Vogue published in 1949. It promoted the collection that followed the one, British Vogue shot at Capri. It was more sophisticated and daring in regards of volumes, that started „beneath the slender waist: drapes, puffs, bows and knots complicated the line of the hips and bestowed gravity on the figure.“  ^[4] But it were not only the clothes that fascinated the Americans, they also took great interest in her as a person and especially her noble origin. She, herself, as well as her sister, mother and the Countess Benedetta Antonelli functioned as models for the feature and were devoted to the „´beauties´of Rome“^[4]. So Simonetta Visconti Colonna die Cesaró was already well known, especially in the US, before that show in 1951.

In 1949, Bergdorf Goodman´s  placed the first order, which Simonetta herself called the „turning point“ ^[24]. And since 1951 Simonetta travelled at least twice a year in the US, to present her collections, where she received great feedback.

In 1951she was engaged, again by Bergdorf&Goodman, to design a 35 piece collection for the 5o anniversary of their New York Department store. The meditarrian vibe and the effortless combination possibilities that could easily shift between beachwear and evening gowns were reasons, why the collection was well admired. One of the dresses from this collection was even chosen to be shown at biennial parade of the New York Fashion group, the first Italian design presented there. The piece was a short, close-fitting evening dress, in black macramé lace, swathed in a long, red faille skirt.

A picture of Simonetta wearing that exact same dress was published in Harper´s Bazaar, calling her the „Glamourous Countess“.

Simonetta´s fame did not stop at the US border, so she signed a contract with Holt Renfre and Company, giving him the exclusive right to produce and sell her drafts, for two years, in Canada. ^[25]

Simonettas reputation as a designer and a style icon brought up a lot of offers for secondary lines, such as kids clothing, lingerie, shoes and accessories. These were not designed by the designer herself, but were marked under her label. ^[26]Her own firm „Simonetta Perfumes Inc.“ launched her first perfume in Fall 1955 on the US market. The most important picture in the advertisement campaign was a photo of the couturier herself in a Renaissance dress and attitude and the perfume in a glass column. The perfume, as well as powders and bath oils was also sold in Italy. ^[27]

In general Simonetta received great resonance for her work from the American buyers and costumers. Her fame in the US was due in part to the hunger of American society for aristocratic romance. In addition, Simonetta as an individual and as an artist was able to create unique silhouettes with a dose of exoticism_.^[28]

In 1957 her name was included in the list of the most elegant woman in the world, drawn up by the New York Dress Institute. ^[26]

„What  happens when two leading Italian couturiers meet and marry? A fabulous ´marriage in fashion´ of course…“^[29]. This comment was published in context of a photomontage, that showed the dresses from two separate collection of Simonetta and Fabiani joint together in a photomontage in the New York Herald Tribune, 1955. The couple knew each other since 1950 and got married in 1952 but they never properly worked together for a collection, even thought they made some important decision together, like swapping Florence and Giorgini for Rome, and later going back.

Their creative union began in 1962, when they took the step to Paris and opened an atelier in 40 Rue de Francois and presented their joint line entitled „Dauphin“. For the presentation many of their Italian friends showed up, as well as celebrities as Elsa Schiaparelli.

The „Dauphin“ line was characterized by „gently fitted designs“ ^[30] , with curved shoulders and accentuated, rounded hips, a raised taille und a slender fit for the bust area. The suits of the collection were paired with a leopard printed plastron that covered half the neck. Movements and volumes were mostly transferred to the back.Fabiani and Simonetta were pioneers of transnationality and transcultur, characteristics that were to become important in fashion. But in that time it seemed like the french press was on „a real cold war on Italian fashion“ ^[31] as the reporter Elsa Robiola commented. ^[29]

The couple showed their collections twice a year in February and July. The spring summer line of 1963 was inspired by russia, Simonetta's maternal heritage. The jackets had small military collars, the fit of the mantles was straighter and slender than usual and their was organza printed with polka dots. Special interest was drawn to the buttons, made of unusual material as string, leather, gilded metal and coffee beans.

Over the course of 1963 Simonetta made the decision to focus only on the atelier in Paris, so she shut down the one in Rome and bought a house in Paris on Rue de Mondovi. By contrast Fabiani travelled between Rome and Paris and seemed to be homesick. The collections of 1964 ended the short, but very creative phase for the couple, when Fabiani moved back to Rome and the Italian way of Life.

Simonetta stayed in Paris and continued her work. ^[32]

Simonetta was aware, that time was changing fashion and consumption. In an interview in January 1962, with Ballazza, about spiritual crisis of High Fashion she acknowledged the growing importance of the standardization and mass production of clothing and said, that fashion had to move with the time to survive.^[33] With that in the back of her mind and her great entrepreneurial attitude, she started „High Boutique“, as she called it. Now the models were ready for sale and could be ordered and reproduced in a small range of different colors and fabrics and needed no more that maximum two fittings. The finished garment was delivered in 10 days. The new formular became successful and had  admires among the high Society and celebrities, for example Princess Niloufer, Elsa Schiaparelli (as well as her daughter and granddaughter), the duchess of Windsor and many more. Simonetta herself explained the success, in an Interview with Oggi in 1967:“ Women now have less and less time to waste at dressmakers, however famous she may be. It doesn't make sense to speak of seasonal fashions any more. No longer is there a clear difference between the summer and the winter, like there was just a few years ago. Nowadays one flies from Nice to Courmayeuer to go skiing in the middle of August.[…]" ^[34].

In the late 1960s Simonetta was already interested in Eastern philosophy and practiced Yoga. She met the Indian guru Swami Chidananda in Paris, while he gave a talk in the Museé de l´Homme. In 1969 she made a promotion tour for her latest collection through the US and met Swami Chidananda again, in Los Angeles. She accompanied him to a hippie commune, without electricity or water, in San Francisco. In 1971 she made her first trip to India. In 1972 Simonetta turned down a lot from what she had build up, as a fashion designer. She sold the Haute Boutique on Rue Francois in Paris, as well as her house on Rue de Mondovi and decided to leave Europe and the western world behind and go to India. In India she settled an ashram at the foot of the Himalayas, like many other young Westerns did in that time. Simonetta cared for a communities of lepers, for which she raised fund, to improve the medical situation of the people, she also startet a craft workshop, at which the ill people could wave carpets and dyi fabrics, that were up for sale. Simonetta also travelled around the subcontinent of India on her way of self-discovery, as she referred to it.

In 1985 she turned her back to the East, as her permanent home and moved back to Europe, where she chose to live between Rome and Paris.

Simonetta Colonna di Cesarò returned to the eye of the fashion public, in 2004 when she was the muse for the popular millner Stephen Jones and his collection „La Prima Donna“. To her honor the Fondazie Pitti Discovery hosted a collection in 2008, by the name „Simonetta. La prima donna della moda italiana“ ^{[35] [36]}

Simonetta Colonna di Cesarò died at the age of 89, on the 26th of September in 2011. ^[57][37]

1. ↑ Simonetta Colonna di Cesarò. In: Wikipedia. 30. Juli 2019 (wikipedia.org [abgerufen am 20. Oktober 2019]). 
2. ↑ Vittoria C. Caratozzolo, Judith Clark, Maria Luisa Frisa: Simonetta. The First Lady of Italian Fashion. Hrsg.: Fondazione Pitti Discovery. Marsilio, Venice 2008, ISBN 88-317-9399-3, S. 157. 
3. ↑ Vittoria C. Caratozzolo, Judith Clark, Maria Luisa Frisa: Simonetta. The First Lady of Italian Fashion. Hrsg.: Fondazione Pitti Discovery. Marsilio, Venice 2008, ISBN 88-317-9399-3, S. 157–160. 
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Vittoria C. Caratozzolo, Judith Clark, Maria Luisa Frisa: Simonetta. The First Lady of Italian Fashion. Hrsg.: Fondazione Pitti Discovery. Marsilio, Venice 200801, ISBN 88-317-9399-3, S. 163. Fehler in Vorlage:Literatur – *** Ungültig: 200801
5. ↑ Vittoria C. Caratozzolo, Judith Clark, Maria Luisa Frisa: Simonetta. The First Lady of Italian Fashion. Hrsg.: Fondazione Pitti Discovery. Marsilio, Venice 2008, ISBN 88-317-9399-3, S. 168. 
6. ↑ Bardo Fabiani. Abgerufen am 11. September 2019 (englisch). 
7. ↑ Simonetta Colonna di Cesarò. Abgerufen am 11. September 2019 (italienisch). 
8. ↑ Giannino Malossi (Hrsg.): The Sala Bianca : the birth of Italian fashion. Electa, Milano 1992, ISBN 88-435-4028-9, S. 41. 
9. ↑ ^{a b c d} Vittoria C. Caratozzolo, Judith Clark, Maria Luisa Frisa: Simonetta. The First Lady of Italian Fashion. Hrsg.: Fondazione Pitti Discovery. Marsilio, Venice 2008, ISBN 88-317-9399-3, S. 161. 
10. ↑ Vittoria C. Caratozzolo, Judith Clark, Maria Luisa Frisa: Simonetta. The First Lady of Italian Fashion. Hrsg.: Fondazione Pitti Discovery. Marsilio, Venice 2008, ISBN 88-317-9399-3, S. 161–162. 
11. ↑ ^{a b c d} Jonathan Faiers, Mary Westerman Bulgarella (Hrsg.): Colors in Fashion. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016, ISBN 1-4742-7369-6, S. 176. 
12. ↑ ^{a b} Giannino Malossi (Hrsg.): The Sala Bianca : the birth of Italian fashion. Electa, Milano 1992, ISBN 88-435-4028-9, S. 186. 
13. ↑ ^{a b c} Giannino Malossi (Hrsg.): The Sala Bianca : the birth of Italian fashion. Electa, Milano 1992, ISBN 88-435-4028-9, S. 21. 
14. ↑ Giannino Malossi (Hrsg.): The Sala Bianca : the birth of Italian fashion. Electa, Milano 1992, ISBN 88-435-4028-9, S. 43. 
15. ↑ Giannino Malossi (Hrsg.): The Sala Bianca : the birth of Italian fashion. Electa, Milano 1992, ISBN 88-435-4028-9, S. 44. 
16. ↑ ^{a b} Vittoria C. Caratozzolo, Judith Clark, Maria Luisa Frisa: Simonetta. The First Lady of Italian Fashion. Hrsg.: Fondazione Pitti Discovery. Marsilio, Venice 2008, ISBN 88-317-9399-3, S. 164. 
17. ↑ Giovanni Battista Giorgini. 26. Dezember 2012, abgerufen am 11. September 2019 (englisch). 
18. ↑ ^{a b} Giannino Malossi (Hrsg.): The Sala Bianca : the birth of Italian fashion. Electa, Milano 1992, ISBN 88-435-4028-9, S. 52. 
19. ↑ Giannino Malossi (Hrsg.): The Sala Bianca : the birth of Italian fashion. Electa, Milano 1992, ISBN 88-435-4028-9, S. 18–19. 
20. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Italy gets dressed. Abgerufen am 15. September 2019 (englisch). 
21. ↑ Giannino Malossi (Hrsg.): The Sala Bianca : the birth of Italian fashion. Electa, Milano 1992, ISBN 88-435-4028-9, S. 68. 
22. ↑ Giannino Malossi (Hrsg.): The Sala Bianca : the birth of Italian fashion. Electa, Milano 1992, ISBN 88-435-4028-9, S. 74. 
23. ↑ Giannino Malossi (Hrsg.): The Sala Bianca : the birth of Italian fashion. Electa, Milano 1992, ISBN 88-435-4028-9, S. 71–72. 
24. ↑ Giannino Malossi (Hrsg.): The Sala Bianca : the birth of Italian fashion. Electa, Milano 1992, ISBN 88-435-4028-9, S. 42. 
25. ↑ Vittoria C. Caratozzolo, Judith Clark, Maria Luisa Frisa: Simonetta. The First Lady of Italian Fashion. Hrsg.: Fondazione Pitti Discovery. Marsilio, Venice 2008, ISBN 88-317-9399-3, S. 164–166. 
26. ↑ ^{a b} Vittoria C. Caratozzolo, Judith Clark, Maria Luisa Frisa: Simonetta. The First Lady of Italian Fashion. Hrsg.: Fondazione Pitti Discovery. Marsilio, Venice 2008, ISBN 88-317-9399-3, S. 171. 
27. ↑ Vittoria C. Caratozzolo, Judith Clark, Maria Luisa Frisa: Simonetta. The First Lady of Italian Fashion. Hrsg.: Fondazione Pitti Discovery. Marsilio, Venice 2008, ISBN 88-317-9399-3, S. 180–181. 
28. ↑ Vittoria C. Caratozzolo, Judith Clark, Maria Luisa Frisa: Simonetta. The First Lady of Italian Fashion. Hrsg.: Fondazione Pitti Discovery. Marsilio, Venice 2008, ISBN 88-317-9399-3, S. 165. 
29. ↑ ^{a b} Vittoria C. Caratozzolo, Judith Clark, Maria Luisa Frisa: Simonetta. The First Lady of Italian Fashion. Hrsg.: Fondazione Pitti Discovery. Marsilio, Venice 2008, ISBN 88-317-9399-3, S. 170. 
30. ↑ Gently Fitted Designs by Simonetta And Fabiani Are Made in America. In: New York Times. New York 5. September 1962, S. 62. 
31. ↑ Vittoria C. Caratozzolo, Judith Clark, Maria Luisa Frisa: Simonetta. The First Lady of Italian Fashion. Hrsg.: Fondazione Pitti Discovery. Marsilio, Venice, ISBN 88-317-9399-3, S. 181. 
32. ↑ Vittoria C. Caratozzolo, Judith Clark, Maria Luisa Frisa: Simonetta. The First Lady of Italian Fashion. Hrsg.: Fondazione Pitti Discovery. Marsilio, Venice 2008, ISBN 88-317-9399-3, S. 182–184. 
33. ↑ Vittoria C. Caratozzolo, Judith Clark, Maria Luisa Frisa: Simonetta. The First Lady of Italian Fashion. Hrsg.: Fondazione Pitti Discovery. Marsilio, Venice 2008, ISBN 88-317-9399-3, S. 179. 
34. ↑ Vittoria C. Caratozzolo, Judith Clark, Maria Luisa Frisa: Simonetta. The First Lady of Italian Fashion. Hrsg.: Fondazione Pitti Discovery. Marsilio, Venice 2008, ISBN 88-317-9399-3, S. 185. 
35. ↑ Vittoria C. Caratozzolo, Judith Clark, Maria Luisa Frisa: Simonetta. The First Lady of Italian Fashion. Hrsg.: Fondazione Pitti Discovery. Marsilio, Venice 2008, ISBN 88-317-9399-3, S. 187–188. 
36. ↑ Simonetta. Abgerufen am 3. August 2019 (englisch). 
37. ↑ Simonetta Colonna di Cesarò. In: Wikipedia. Abgerufen am 11. September 2019 (italienisch).