Buonanno

Anna (1924). Dressmaker from Naples. She continued a family tradition. Her mother Concettina, wife of the English painter Giuseppe Andrower, opened an atelier in Naples in 1917 and, like all the other dressmakers of the time, brought French fashions to Italy. She would purchase paper patterns from the maisons of Paris and would reproduce them, adapting them to Italian taste. She was discovered by Jolanda of Savoy, and dressed the hereditary Princess Maria José. Her atelier was in Palazzo Calabritto on Piazza dei Martiri, but she also opened another in Rome. Anna learned the job from her mother. She would have liked to be a painter as was her father, but at the age of 15 she followed Concettina to Paris to buy paper patterns and models. Her destiny was thus decided. She joined her mother’s atelier and, in the post-war period, worked beside her, little by little assuming control. She created the wedding dress for Paola of Belgium. She dressed the entire aristocracy of Naples, staying faithful to French fashions. She would remember saying “No” to Sofia Scicolone who, before making her début in the cinema and becoming Sophia Loren, had offered herself as a model: “She had too many curves for us.” She later entrusted the direction of the atelier to her daughter Gigliola. In 1994, the atelier was moved to via Chiamone, keeping the brass sign that said Sartoria Concettina Buonanno (Concettina Buonanno Dressmaker).