Vanna
VANNA: TAILOR’S SHOP FOUNDED IN THE 1930S BY TWO MIDDLE-CLASS MILANESE LADIES, ANNA CARMELI AND MANETTE VALENTE
Vanna is a tailor’s shop founded in the 1930s by two middle-class Milanese ladies, Anna Carmeli and Manette Valente. The premises were in Corso di Porta Nuova. It was also active during the war. In a reportage drawn up for Fili magazine on Milanese summer socialites at the height of the war, Brunetta describes Donina Gnecchi as wearing “Vanna’s blue and red striped trousers flared at the hips and held in place at the shoulders by Tyrolean-style braces”.
In her book Il lusso & l’autarchia (Rizzoli 1982), Natalia Aspesi describes some of her creations from 1942. These include: “The twisted necklaces made of wooden grains, the small bunch of cherries to put on top of the hair, the butterfly knots made of waxed gingham to put on the sides of the ears, the nets that only hold the curls on the nape of the neck”. Vanna was one of the pioneers of Italian fashion at the catwalk show on 12 February 1951 in Florence, against the backdrop of Bista Giorgini’s salon at Villa Torrigiani. She also appeared on the subsequent catwalks at the Hotel Excelsior and the Sala Bianca in Palazzo Pitti.
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