Gori Sisters

A dressmaker’s workshop active in Turin from the 1920s to after World War II. From 1931, four years before the Ente Nazionale della Moda was set up with its dictatorial regulations, the Gori sisters — with the dressmakers Palmer (in Milan) and Lamma (in Turin) — emulated fashions from Paris, by purchasing designs and fabrics from the French houses. In 1931, the Gori sisters presented their first evening dress completely of their own invention. Six years later, on the occasion of a ball organized by the mayor of Turin at the Palazzo Madama in honor of international fashion, they won the cup for the most Italian design. It was, recounts Natalia Aspesi in her book Il lusso e l’autarchia (Luxury and Self-Sufficiency, published by Rizzoli, 1982) an evening of black tulle and great swathes of black haircloth.