Fashion Blogs

Among fabrics, embroidery, sewing machines and seamstresses with nimble hands, Sartoria Farani, in the heart of Trastevere in Rome, is the symbol of Italian excellence in the history of costume. A story, that of the made in Italy, too often associated with walkways and new trends. But, looking over what they propose the glossy fashion magazines, you can discover hidden treasures, rich in culture and passion for beautiful and well done.

Born with the radio presenter Piero Farani, the tailoring is now directed by Luigi Piccolo, which preserves the heritage through a meticulous research and restyling watching yes to memory, but in evolutionary terms, handing the delicate art of knowing how to make a costume.(red formal dresses)

The Oscar of 1969 for the costumes to Danilo Donati with the film Romeo and Juliet Zeffirelli experimentation with those of Barbarella, which appear in the fashion history books, through the clowns and Fellini's Casanova, her cardigan Toto in Hawks and the Sparrows and medieval clothes of Benigni Troisi-couple nothing left to do but cry. Up to the creations of David Lynch for Dune in 1984 and the most recent film by Sofia Coppola and Tim Burton.

In this interview, Luigi Piccolo tells us of a too often unknown world, but it offers pleasant and unexpected surprises.

We start from the union between cinema and costume. When did you discover that you have a passion for this world?

I first of all a passion for cinema that I sent to my ten-year-old grandson, who goes there since he was two and also has a film culture not indifferent. Doing this work is a little 'how to steal home thieves. The shock came with 8 ½ by Federico Fellini.

At the time the movies were only for those over 14 and 18, I was only about 12 and Friuli went with a friend of mine at a local cinema. They made us get, I watched the movie, and I said to my friend: "I do not understand anything, but it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." I arrived in Rome in the Eighties to work in tailoring Gp 11, where the first thing I admired were the costumes of Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits.

How did instead, the Sartoria Farani?

The tailoring was born in 1962, he was the founder Piero Farani, Emilian birth which then moved to Turin to work on the radio because it was equipped with a special voice timbre. Among the Forties and Fifties, Rome was a must, the Hollywood on the Tiber. It is the period of the great film productions and Farani made the appearance in films with an initial artistic staff.

I will always wonder: "Farani, tells me the story of the Spanish Steps?". Around the Spanish Steps, in fact, it revolved the world of the Roman atelier. The dressmakers scene with shirts filled the square at lunchtime, as in the famous film The girls of the Spanish Steps, is unforgettable and fascinated me. Farani there he met the great film and theater as Paolo Poli, Gian Maria Volonte, Franco Zeffirelli, Giancarlo Cobelli.

Through such collaborations they have arrived early success and fame?

In the mid-Fifties Piero Farani he accompanies his friend costume designer Danilo Donati in Annamode tailoring, fashion ateliers who occasionally collaborated with the entertainment world. There the conversion takes place and is asked to work for the tailor, where he remained for six years as director. In 1962 in Rome there is a lot of work, given the film productions and, through his friendship with Donati, and with Pier Paolo Pasolini (these were the years of La ricotta, The Gospel according to Matthew) comes notoriety.(dresses for wedding)

Farani then opens tailoring to Viale Mazzini and, except for Medea, whose costume designer Piero Tosi, collaboration with Pasolini was crucial. In the late Seventies, Italian cinema in costume starts to diminish and then disappear so much so that today we work primarily with foreign countries, except for sporadic episodes like the last film by Matteo Garrone, The Tale of the stories, which for costumes recently won the David di Donatello.

Cinema in costume in crisis. What was the alternative?

There is a tendency towards the lyric and prose, the world of theater. In the Sixties, however, Studio One, Canzonissima, Royal Flush, the Saturday night programs and TV dramas were the daily bread for the tailoring, with the economic boom and the explosion in the world of television.

How it starts, then, your career in Rome?

I arrived in 1982, I studied Letters in Padua and lived in Venice. In 1978 there have renovated and reopened the Goldoni Theatre, and was one of the first cases of philological reconstruction, staging La Locandiera, directed by Giancarlo Cobelli. I wanted to make the restorer, I drew well, I highlighted comics. Cobelli asked me to come to Rome. Paolo Tommasi, set and costume designer of Cobelli, phoned me to ask me to come to the capital, to do what I did not know. So they came to tailor Gp 11, the current The One, where he worked Gherardi.

After two years Cobelli is organizing a meeting for me with Farani at his house. Made fans with rhinestones for Fendi sisters and told me not mince words was looking for someone who would send forth the tailor when there would be more, because in his family there were no heirs interested in the job. With the recklessness of the twenty years I accepted, then I thought: "But I must reduce myself to make fans with Saturday's feathers?". Then I did a lot worse.

We come to the present day. Your collaborations are increasingly international ...

Today in all sectors working globally, because from this point of view have shortened the distances. We work a lot with Japan, where they have not crafted tailors and lacks this type of culture. We collaborated with Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette and later with Tim Burton, for the sequel Alice through the looking glass, and for the next movie Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Often working with La Scala in Milan we met Colleen Atwood, Burton's costume designer, who is in love of our working method. And then the hunter and the ice queen, and the prequel to Harry Potter, under construction, with Eddie Redmayne Oscar Award.

Italian flag in the film and theater world. What's wrong with our sartorial tradition to be so much demand abroad and - why not? - Envied?

The crafts. Simply and trivially crafts. For example we are now working on a Tosca for the work of Cincinnati because the American costume designer, met two years ago in Tokyo, he has commissioned the construction of the costumes.

At the international level, what are the direct competitors of the Italian in the costume world?

Abroad, there remained only Cornejo in Spain, an old tailor who had the foresight to rake in a lot of material. In the eighties I watched foaming at the mouth Atelier des costumes de Paris, which did not last long because it created masterpieces, all made entirely by hand, no sewing machine. So you can imagine ... Then what is left has been purchased by Cornejo. In London, however, there is Angels, historical tailoring but, very often, the costume designers who come to us say that I prefer the Italian craftsmanship.(formal wear brisbane)

What happens to the costumes, once completed the filming of a movie or a theatrical tour ended?

Americans usually buy them, because they expect you to run the show for at least ten years. From us after a fortnight back the boxes with costumes which then remain in stock, except take them out when you need to, exhibit and occasional films.

What is the average age of people working in tailoring?

One of the most fascinating aspects of this work is that there is a rule. At the moment the average age has dropped. I found many young volunteers willing to do this job, ten years ago I was desperate.

You're a teacher of History of Cinema at the IED in Rome. Known interest of your students to the costume world rather than the world of fashion, because, among the school desks, many aspire to become established designers?

Here in tailoring there is a Sardinian boy, named Matthew, who wanted to be a designer, then came to do an internship and I bribed [smiles, N.d.R]. The kids I teach History of Cinema at the IED in Rome I always say: "Come in tailoring, observed," because the workplace for all as creative directors in the big fashion houses there. I try to explain to my students that tailoring is not a demeaning profession, as is too often assumed, it is a wonderful work.

Why, in your opinion, there is still a strong prejudice against the tailor's craft? If we called the "dressmaker" it would be different? He would have more appeal?

It lacks the education to the world of tailoring. These terms are a bit 'annoy me and the other side to my kids always I say to read up. As well as to the world of cooking, if you make the chef, considering what passes today in the media, you're a star. And I think it's too much.

My students, for example, from a black and white film, I understand that you can get into the history of costume and see how Marlon Brando, with t-shirt and dirty hat in A Streetcar Named Desire, is that we will find an icon in the early eighties in Bruce Weber photo, Herb Ritts and fashion Giorgio Armani. "Black and White" does not mean old and outdated, indeed, there is a charm that the color does not. You can not skip key steps in the film world which are very important stylistically as À bout de souffle with Jean-Paul Belmondo. Culture, to become good professionals, is all.

Towards what will evolve Sartoria Farani in the future?

I want him to continue doing what he has always done. I received proposals for change, how to work for the world of fashion and great designers. But we have little in common. In the past there has been a great collaboration with the maestro Roberto Capucci, his clothes are works of art. Now we are working on costumes for The Marriage of Figaro with Maurizio Galante, Capucci student.