Prandoni

From small men’s tailoring business to a real industry 

At the beginning of the 1900s Giovan Battista Rosti took over a small men’s tailoring business called Prandoni, that was founded in Milan at the turn of the 19^th century. Rosti became famous for his suits, which he made for Giacomo Puccini (who was particularly fond of his overcoats with fur collars), Arturo Toscanini, the aristocracy, the Italian royal family, and the Duke of Bergamo. Rossi married twice. He had two sons, Angelo and Ugo, with his first wife, and two, Gianfranco Carlo and Fortunato, with his second wife. In the 1920s Angelo Rosti, who took charge of the business, counted Guglielmo Marconi and Gabriele D’Annunzio among his customers, though they often had problems settling his bills. By 1925 the business was so successful that their workforce grew from 20 tailors to 200, and from a typical family business it developed into a real company. The Milanese headquarters were in Piazza San Fedele, where the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro is today, and where the comic actor Virgilio Talli’s Teatro Manzoni was destroyed by an air raid in August 1943. After the war Prandoni moved to Piazza Belgioioso. They made special individual tailoring dummies for their most important clients. Prandoni also had a branch in Genoa. They also distributed the famous English Yardley cologne. Prandoni’s clothes had a particularly military and formal style, with square shoulders and a well-defined waist, especially their dramatic tightly-belted overcoats. The business closed in about 1960.

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