Category: G

Literally, a girl who hangs out on the streets. Also known as “rascal” style. Truffaut launched it in his film Jules et Jim (1962): a long cardigan, knickerbockers, a large scarf, and a flat beret. The haircut of Zizi Jeanmarie and that of Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday were also gamine.

According to the Oxford and Webster’s dictionaries, the term glamour means charm, prestige, thus a “glamorous” person is fascinating, enchanting, and attractive. The word derives from the Scottish term gramarye, which means magic. Nowadays it is the synonym for style and seduction, it is reminiscent of someone who shines from his own light without excesses. Beauty helps, but an ‘ugly’ person can also have glamour. Above all it is a matter of personality. Obviously the eye and culture of who’s looking and judging never gives a unique response. Marilyn Monroe was, for some, sexy but not glamorous. For others, she matched both ‘virtues’. Just a few divas meet everyone’s agreement. For example, Gene Tierney. Looking at the 20th century, some writers and artists can be considered rather glamorous, for example Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Man Ray, and André Breton. In the 1950s and 1960s Franµoise Sagan and Georges Simenon, in the 1980s Andy Warhol and Richard Avedon. If glamour accompanies elegance, then the following can be added to the group: Marlene Dietrich, Louise Brooks, Wallis Simpson, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Ali Khan, Paloma Picasso, Lady Diana, and Gianni Agnelli. Many Hollywood personalities, especially from some films that are now part of history, belong to the ‘glamorous’ category: Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942), Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Ava Gardner in The Barefoot Countess (1954), Grace Kelly in A Perfect Murder (1954), Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman in Cat on the Tin Roof (1958), Marilyn Manson in Let’s Make Love (1960), and Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961). The following European performers should be mentioned: Brigitte Bardot in Et Dieu créa la femme (1956), Jean-Paul Belmondo in A bout de soufflé (1960), Alain Delon in Gattopardo (1963). Characters can also be glamorous off the set, such as Jack Nicholson, Sean Connery, Marcello Mastroianni, Robert Redford, Harrison Ford, and George Clooney. For the females: Catherine Deneuve, Claudia Cardinale, Sharon Stone, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Nicole Kidman. Some top models have glamour, such as Naomi Campbell, Elle MacPherson, Linda Evangelista, and Carla Bruni. Finally, some sport personalities can be added to this curious list: Tazio Nuvolari, Michel Platini, Vitas Gerulaitis, John McEnroe, Michael Jordan, and Zinedine Zidane.

Piero (1949). Italian leather goods’ artisan. Bags, suitcases, briefcases, belts, jackets, scarves, ties, and shoes: all articles are branded with his logo of two embracing angels. During the 1960s, Guidi studied sculpture and bas-relief at the State School of Arts in Urbino. He started his business as a designer and entrepreneur with the Lineabold brand. His bags, in particular, have a strong personality: cloth and leather with steel and rubber finishings. He later created the following lines: Magic Circus (colored bags), Angeli (mixed leather goods), and Day Time (classic clothing). The painter Mario Schifano has posed for his advertising campaign.

Owen (1970). English designer. He is considered one of the main figures in the rebirth of British fashion. A graduate of the Epsom College of Art & Design in 1992, he made his début on the runways in 1994 with a Collection that reinvented glamour in a rock-and-roll key. In fact, he counts among his clients famous rock stars such as Mick Jagger, the Spice Girls, and Janet Jackson. He mixes influences of different types, from reggae to Pop Art and from naturalism to technology, creating clothes that are feminine, modern, and sexy.

Angelo (1959). Italian designer, born in Francavilla Fontana, near Brindisi. He began his career in Rome, with a first boutique in the heart of the Parioli neighborhood. In 1998, he moved to London, where he opened a boutique in the center of the city, next to Harrods. He became famous immediately, bringing new and somewhat unconventional ideas to the British capital. Among his fans are Roger Moore, the actor and former 007, the soccer player David Beckham, an icon of male elegance, Michael Caine, Simon Le Bon, and, not least, Paul McCartney who, as a committed animal rights activist, asked Galasso for shoes made of cloth instead of leather. His men’s Collections continue to be manufactured for the most part in Italy. In Autumn 2002, in a photomontage for the monthly GQ, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was dressed for different moments of the day by various designers, just for fun. The Galasso shirt worn by Blair, called Corleone–Interno 8, a name clearly inspired by the Mafia, was white with blue buttonholes and a three-button neck. It had enormous success with Londoners. In just a few days, 800,000 pieces were sold. It was worn even by Mr. Blair, who received one sent as a gift. In 2003, Paul McCartney took 14 Interno 8 shirts on his European tour.

Irene (1916). Italian designer. She has been called “the princess of fashion” and, in fact, she is a princess. She arrived in Rome as a child, fleeing Russia with her family. By 1943, she was a young woman of great charm and culture who studied art history and spoke several languages. She did not fail to be noticed by the Fontana sisters who became very famous in liberated Rome and saw in her the ideal ambassador for their clothes. Her first Collection was in 1959. She designed it in collaboration with Federico Forquet. In his tailor’s shop Maria Carloni was also present; she had just left the maison Ventura. In 1960 came the launch of that palazzo pigiama (palazzo-pajama) which spread from the Sala Bianca of Palazzo Pitti all over the world, photographed and distributed by all the media. It was worn by Diana Vreeland, the most important American historian of fashion and the priestess of Vogue. The name for the new creation came from her. Galitzine immediately found herself famous. In fact, in that wide, precious, and very elegant evening outfit, her vision had already been expressed: very feminine trousers for a modern woman, or a large, swaying skirt; strong colors, which can make even a raincoat feminin; the end of black for evening in favor of tiny flaming dresses and silk tailored suits. After Fourquet, she worked with Elias Zabaleta, a Spanish designer. In 1988, she returned to Russia for the first time, invited to present her new Collection at the Rossija Theatre in Moscow in front of 2,500 people. Since 1990, the brand has belonged to the Xines company, owned by Giada Ruspoli. The designer has continued to supervise the product, starting with the creative phase. In 1996, Longanesi published her autobiography, Dalla Russia alla Russia (‘From Russia To Russia’).
The new Irene Galitzine haute couture Collection is presented at the Art Café in Rome. It is designed by Massimo Stefanini, who is from Orvieto, in Umbria. He has a degree in architecture and worked as a costume designer for the theater. The Collection contains very important pieces in silk velvet and precious lace embroidered in gold or embellished with fringes. The colors are very strong, with lots of black, dark red, and brown, as well as a softer ecru and powder pink. It is completed by mink busbies and very precious jewellery, all handmade.
The brand participates in an exhibit on Italian fashion held at the embassy in Bern. Other events are held at the Bardo Museum in Tunis, the Le Corbusier in Algiers, the Borges Cultural Center in Buenos Aires, and the National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur.
Alta Roma pays tribute to the company with a show in which the famous palazzo pajamas are presented, revisited with originality and brilliance by the designer Gentucca Bini. There are 12 models in jersey, linen, and silk, in shades of white, beige, and ecru, combined with original flower-shaped hats.
Galitzine exhibits and shows continue all over the world: Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, BogotÄ, Seoul, and Tokyo. From May to August some of its most important creations are shown as part of the exhibit organized at the National Museum in Minsk, Belarus. From July to September, some distinctive palazzo pajamas are shown at the Museum of the Mondragone Foundation in Naples, as a tribute to their originality.
The Galitzine brand is active in several areas, such as clothing, accessories, and household items, including a complete line of furniture and interior décor objects.

Rosa (1867-1954). Italian dressmaker. Already called, in 1907, “the inventor of Italian fashion” by the most influential newspapers of the time, she was certainly one of the most important personalities in Italian fashion in the early 1900s. She was born in the province of Sondrio. After long apprenticeships in Milan, Nice, and Paris, she returned to Milan with the sought-after qualification of a première. In 1895, she found a job with the atelier H. Haardt et Fils, one of the most prestigious fashion houses in Milan, with branch offices in San Remo, Lucerne, and St. Moritz. From the beginning of her career, she was committed to the cause of social protest against the exploitation of women, taking part, together with Anna Maria Mozzoni, in the International Congress of Zurich in 1893 and actively participating in the Socialist Women’s Movement that was headed by Abigaille Zanetta. She soon entered the circle of Anna Kuliscioff, the companion of Andrea Costa and later of Filippo Turati. She and Anna became friends and Anna would wear her modern and simple tailored suits, helping to promote them. In 1903, she became director of Casa Haardt, but soon rebelled against the established custom of copying French models for the rich bourgeoisie, the aristocracy of Lombardy, and decided to promote a clothing line in “pure Italian style.” Starting in 1905, she taught History of Costume at the Professional Women’s School of the Humanitarian Society of Milan, where she soon became director of the dressmaking department. On the prestigious pages of Marzocco, Vita d’Arte, and Vita Femminile, she wrote that the process of emancipation requires at the same time better education of the workers, the rationalization and simplification of the women’s wardrobe, and its formal freedom from French models. At the Milan International Exposition of 1906, she proposed a group of models inspired by the work of famous Italian Renaissance artists, showing how it is possible to obtain numerous ideas from the great national artistic heritage. Two of these great designs, the celebrated dancing dress inspired by Botticelli’s Primavera and the court mantle inspired by a drawing by Pisanello, are kept in the Costume Gallery in Florence. This experiment allowed her to win the Grand Prix awarded by the jury in the Decorative Arts section of the Exposition. Through her study of the sculpture and painting of classical antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the 1400s and 1500s, she revolutionized the field of clothing decoration, introducing three-dimensional naturalistic embroidery never experimented with in fashion before. In June 1908, she presented her Italian fashion solutions in the theater with the help of Lyda Borelli, an enthusiast supporter who wore some of her “revisitations” of antique designs. In that same year, in Rome, she participated in the first Congress of Italian Women, and gave a report about the relationships between fashion and the decorative arts. Due to her work, the first organizing committee for Fashion of Pure Italian Art, led by Giuseppe Visconti di Modrone and supported by Franca Florio, was created in 1909. The following year, in the pages of Vita d’Arte, she promoted the National Contest for a Woman’s Evening Dress, which aimed to establish and support the independent creativity of Italian dressmaking shops. Her success was at its peak between 1908 and 1912, years in which the New York Herald also popularized her designs. During World War I, she intensified her humanitarian activity to the detriment of her fashion business, even though she decided to publish Storia della Moda attraverso i secoli (‘A History of Fashion Through the Centuries’) in three volumes, of which only the first was published, in 1925. In 1928 she was forced to abandon her profession because of her open anti-Fascist beliefs. She died in Milan in 1954.

Underwear accessory used to hold up the stockings. It derives from the French jarretière, and it indicates both an ancient symbol of devotion to an institution or a noble family and the most modern and shocking element of women’s erotic underwear. You only have to think about the popular tradition of the red garter that women wear on New Year’s Eve and then give away as a gift. It belongs both to the male and female wardrobe. Today, it is almost exclusively worn by women. There are very, very few gentlemen who wear garters any more. The accessory consists of a band which holds up the stockings, worn on the upper part of each leg or under the knee, depending on the stocking’s length. The term first appears in the 800s in the writings of Eginard. While describing the clothing of Charlemagne, he speaks about “garters” that hold up the monarch’s stockings. It has been present in men’s clothing since about 1200. In the mid 1300s, after an incident at a court ball hosted by the Countess of Salisbury, Edward III of England designated the garter as the symbol of the most prestigious honor given by the British Crown, the Order of the Garter, at the same time uttering the famous motto that is still present on the royal coat of arms: “Honni soit qui mal y pense.” Used in the following centuries to hold up both men’s and women’s stockings, the garter began to decline in use at the end of the 1800s. This was due at first to the advent of women’s suspender belts, then the popularity of tights and support stockings.”

Italian silk factory. It is named after its founder, who established it in 1927 in Breganze (Vicenza). Basso had no particular background. He worked in finance. He was simply motivated by a strong passion for silkworm breeding. He began production with a single old loom in the basement of his house. His clients were soon the most important ateliers of the time. During the 1960s the leadership of his son Gilberto introduced the company to foreign markets, including Japan, Europe, the Arab countries, and North America. The 1990s saw the début of high-tech fabrics, causing serious difficulties for small factories such as Giordano Basso which still worked the fiber with traditional methods. It was time for a management reorganization, by the third generation. New investments were necessary in order to satisfy the needs of every single customer, putting into effect a niche policy: fabrics in pure silk, blends of silk and wool, jacquards, and soft silk velvets which combined an extreme lightness with the greatest consistency.

Jeff (1967). British designer. After studied at St. Martin’s School of Art in London, he completed apprenticeships with Gian Marco Venturi, Valentino, and Ferré. He started looking for a business partner before making his debut, and found Nick Hart. His fashion reinvents military uniforms and work clothes. In 1993 he launched the Griffin Laundry brand, later simplified to Griffin. He has been among the first to abandon the traditional runway show and to use the Internet. He has collaborated with Hugo Boss and Mandarina Duck. In 2001 he opens a store with a many windowed front sin West London.