Ventura

Milanese fashion house founded in 1815 by Domenico Ventura. It immediately became famous for its skill at reproducing or recreating French outfits and models. It won a vast clientele, after Italian unification, in the international markets as well. In 1869 the company opened a subsidiary in Geneva; it counted among its clients the Austrian royal family. In the same years, the headquarters in Milan was regularly patronized by other royals, in particular by the queen of Italy, Margherita, who lived part time in the Villa di Monza. There developed a certain interest for an Italian fashion that might be less obsequious to and respectful of Paris: even the queen and her ladies-in-waiting clearly approved of this tendency. The Ventura company was appointed a Purveyor to the Royal House of Italy. At the end of the First World War, the Milanese sartoria became intensely busy, especially with runway presentations but also with participations in international events, such as the Fiera Campionaria (1920), which saw the involvement of other well-known names in Italian fashion, such as Ferrario, Radice, Fumach-Galli, Marta Palmer, Montorsi, all of them competing with the ateliers of Paris. In 1923, Ventura opened a subsidiary in Rome in the Piazza di Spagna, at the corner of Via della Croce. Among the 300 employees there was a valet in livery who operated the elevator. There were two stories of workshops, with embroiderers, seamstresses working “light” and seamstresses working “heavy.” On the second story was the main reception room, with adjoining dressing rooms to try on clothing. For many years, the atelier in Rome was run by Madame Hannà, a much feared Dutch première. Counting all the various offices, the company now had 800 employees. The owner of the company, Vittorio Alberto Montana, was appointed chairman of the union of Italian high fashion. Among the company’s clients were movie and theater actresses, such as Clara Calamai and Isa Miranda, and members of the nobility, such as the princesses Colonna, Barberini and Odescalchi, and the wealthy bourgeoisie. Among the most famous outfits of the Casa Ventura, there was the wedding gown of Maria Josè of Belgium, created in 1930 to sketches by the prince and heir Umberto. The royal wedding was an event that involved the entire city, and the wedding dress, in an illustration by John Guida, was published in all the newspapers and magazines of the time. “It was a gown with lace glove sleeves so narrow that,” as Fernanda Gattinoni, then première at Ventura, recalled, “it was necessary to cut them with scissors, thus launching a new fashion.” At the beginning of the 1940s, the company shut down. The Milan offices were taken over by Germana Marucelli. The Roman branch continued without great changes until 1942, when the Contessa Gabriella di Robilant (known as Gaby) took over, renaming it Gabriella Sport, but maintaining the structures and part of the staff, in order to produce a line of sporty apparel. A sector of the archives and the rest of the staff were taken over by Fernanda Gattinoni for her atelier.”