This post is directly linked with the previous one since it focuses on shoemaker Alberto Dal Co’, who was also the uncle of the Fontana Sisters (he was their mother Amabile’s brother).
Born in Traversetolo in 1902, as a very young man Dal Co’ already worked as a shoemaker in his own town.
When he moved to Rome he first opened a bespoke shoe shop in Via Crispi 35, then, in 1952, he moved to Porta Pinciana and soon became very popular among the stars and celebrities of those times.
Throughout his career Dal Co' collaborated with different designers and historical Italian fashion houses, from the Fontana Sisters to Fabiani, Lancetti, Schuberth and Valentino.
The Dal Co’ shop is currently based in Via Vittoria 65, just around the corner from Piazza di Spagna.
If you visit it, please pay attention to the cabinet at the back of the shop considered by Silvia, grandniece of Alberto, as a sort of little family museum.
In this part of the shop visitors can see photographs of famous actresses trying on shoes with Alberto Dal Co’ and samples of his historical footwear, from the legendary paparazzo shoes mentioned in a previous post (by the way, they are extremely light, despite the toothed metal wheel integrated in the heel – see the black and white picture in the background of the first image in this post? That's how you were supposed to use these shoes if you wanted to hurt the paparazzi…) to bejewelled sandals covered in pearls and beads.
There is also a recent addition to the museum, a pair of white open toe mules with a kind of curled up point inspired by the paparazzo shoe recently donated by Franca Faldini, wife of Italian actor Totò.
Silvia studied History of Art at university, so she’s very much into fashion and art and, a while back, she organised an exhibition entitled "Passeggiata Dal Co’" that featured artworks inspired by shoes and pieces that incorporated historical shoe lasts from the Dal Co’ archive.
All the shoes sold in the shop are handmade following the Alberto Dal Co’ tradition and, at the moment, the company also makes shoes in technologically advanced materials and with laser cut leather.
Quite a few foreign tourists are rediscovering the Dal Co’ shoes, but also celebrities.
Giada De Laurentiis, daughter of the late Italian film producer Dino, visited in one episode of her Weekend Getaways series the Dal Co' shop with her mother and had her shoes made on the spot.
When Silvia heard I was an Iren Brin fan she took out of the family archive an article written by the late Italian journalist and fashion critic in which she mentioned Dal Co’.
The piece was published in January 1965 for Il Giornale d’Italia, when Dal Co’ had already died.
Brin reviewed in her article the latest fashion shows in Florence and Rome, then focused on a new trend, elaborate, embroidered and colourful stockings and tights, mentioning at the end of her piece Dal Co’, remembering him as a passionate man, devoted to his art, defining him a “proud and silent craftsman, a man who actively contributed to the ‘Italian miracle’”, and adding that, if he were born in France, he would have created shoes for empress Marie Louise, Bonaparte's second wife.
“His widow and his daughter decided to pay homage to his memory by collaborating with the best Italian fashion houses. This is definitely the best way to honour him,” Brin concluded in her feature.
I'm sure that, with Silvia at the helm, the family tradition will continue and I hope that through such family-based companies, more and more young designers will rediscover the importance of creating exquisite handcrafted pieces.
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This is cool totally awesome they’re so fashionable and stylish, this will make your more pretty all the time.