Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
lowing the economic crash of 1929 and the advent of new synthetic fabrics, that the in-
dustry fell into terminal decline.
Today, raw silk is imported from China and only the finishing, dyeing and printing
work is carried out in Como. Out of literally hundreds of silk houses only three big firms
remain: Seteria Ratti (
www.ratti.it
), Mantero (
www.mantero.com
) and Canepa
(
www.canepa.it
)
. They employ nearly one third of the Como population, while Como's
Istituto Tecnico Industriale di Setificio, founded in 1869, continues to turn out world-class
designers, printers and chemical-dyeing experts.
LUISA CASATI
Before Lady Gaga's meat dress or Italian style-star Anna dello Russo's
Star Wars
-style feathered headgear, there
was the Marquesa Casati (1881-1957). The first female style icon to realise the power of fashion in creating le-
gend, the Marquesa proudly proclaimed, 'I want to be a living work of art'.
Born in Milan, the daughter of a wealthy cotton merchant, Luisa was one of Italy's wealthiest heiresses by the
age of 15. She married well and all seemed to be going according to plan, until she met notorious Italian writer
and war hero, Gabriele d'Annunzio, with whom she started a shockingly open love affair.
Unfettered by d'Annunzio's unorthodox nature Luisa began to transform her appearance, dyeing her hair flame
red, highlighting her huge green eyes with droplets of poisonous belladonna, and dressing in lustrous Bakst vel-
vets.
Luisa Casati is one of the most widely represented women in history. She has been painted, sculpted, drawn
and photographed by some of the 20th centuries' most avant-garde artists (Boldoni, Singer Seargeant, Dalí, Ep-
stein, Man Ray and Cecil Beaton, to name but a few). She played muse to many movements, including the Italian
Futurists, and launched the careers of countless artists through her generous patronage. But her greatest impact
was in the world of fashion, where she is considered the original female dandy. Buried in Brompton Cemetery
with her false eyelashes, her tombstone reads: 'Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety'.
Global Powerhouses
Although Italy ceded ground as global tastemaker to France, Austria and even England
between the 17th and 20th centuries, when foreign domination of the Italian peninsula
sent power and vertigo-inducing pomaded wigs elsewhere, the streamlined look of Italian
Futurism and the industrial revolution of the 19th century brought fashion back to
Florence. Where once Italian cobblers, seamstresses and leatherworkers crafted only
made-to-measure designs for aristocrats and royalty, in 1950s Florence the idea of a sea-
sonal fashion show was born. Held in the Palazzo Pitti, these shows were an extraordinary
success, launching some of world's most famous fashion empires.
But Milan literally stole the show in 1958 when it hosted Italy's first Fashion Week.
Away from the constraints of the Florentine fashion establishment, where designers had to
