Sindacato Italiano Alta Moda

It is founded in 1953 in opposition to Bista Giorgini’s Florentine fashion shows by the dissenting Roman faction:Fabiani, Simonetta, Lola Giovannelli, Schuberth, sorelle Fontana, Ferdinandi, Mingolini-Heim, Garnet. The union’s constitution forbade the members from taking part in the shows at the Sala Bianca in the Pitti Palace and laid down that they should present their own collections, each in their own studio, two days before the shows took place in Florence. It was an outright declaration of war. Rome raised the flag, asserting its right to do things on its own and the dressmakers justified this decision by complaining about the cost of traveling to Florence.

In reality, the schism arose because they were annoyed at the promiscuity of the runway, which mixed everything together (haute couture, boutique wear and ready-to-wear), and at being limited to showing only 18 dresses over the three days of the Pitti Palace shows.

Sindacato Italiano Alta Moda
12 febbraio 1951.

Simonetta Visconti

Simonetta Visconti, who with Fabiani was one of the first to walk out, recounts, “One day, we told ourselves that Rome was just as good as Florence and that every place had the right to its own exclusive revolution. Individualism is a typically Italian weakness.”

The press sided with Florence. Even the journalist Irene Brin, despite being Roman and friends with a number of the dissenting faction, waved the Florentine flag: “We are deeply loyal to Giorgini’s idea, in terms of the unity it creates, the time it saves and the choice of work. If we have to balance this with something for Rome, it is as a consolation: we can offer lots of sales, a lot of praise and lots of promises. But if we have to prepare a future, we will have to avoid the many errors that have been made and side, once again, with Giorgini.” Drop by drop, the future led instead to other diasporas.

Giovan Battista Giorgini

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