Robliant, Gabriella

Robilant, Gabriella

Gabriella di Robilant (1900-1999): Fashion Designer

The atelier-shop Gabriella Sport

Gabriella di Robilant (1900-1999) was a fashion designer. In 1936-37 she opened an atelier-shop in Milan in Via Santo Spirito and called it Gabriella Sport. Her fashion was sporty or, as she would later be called, casual: pullovers, skirts, after-ski boots and the wide-leg trousers that were taking root in those years.

A fashion for women who ‘realize’ themselves

Gabriella de Bosdari had been the wife of Andrea di Robilant and, with him, had, between Venice and Paris, lived intensely the worldliness, the pleasures and the light-heartedness of the high society of that time. Divorced, she moved to Milan with her children and began to work, anticipating, perhaps out of necessity, the season of women who were self-sufficient, supported their families and “fulfilled” themselves.

Gabriella-di-Robilant-3

The Ventura tailor’s shop in Rome

Gabriella Sport was successful, so much so that she weathered the storms of the Second World War. When, in the immediate post-war period in Rome (she had moved there to escape the bombing of Milan), she decided, with the help of some friends, to take over the Roman branch of the Ventura tailor’s shop in Piazza di Spagna, she kept that name while dedicating herself to haute couture. She was helped professionally by Madame Anna, who had been the strong-willed, intelligent director of the Ventura fashion house. It was a brief adventure.

The last years

In 1949, Gabriella remarried the Sicilian prince Giardinelli. For a few years she commuted between Palermo and Rome, keeping the tailor’s shop open. At the beginning of the 1950s, she retired. Later, she became the national president of the Soroptimists and wrote the book Una gran bella vita (Mondadori). She died almost a hundred years old.

Gabriella-di-Robilant

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