Apart from his work for some of the most famous and talented Italian costume designers and directors, Italian tailor Umberto Tirelli is well-known as a great fashion collector. Throughout his life he bought rare pieces, building up a fashion collection that spans over a century, from 1870 till the late ‘60s, that included creations by Worth, Poiret, Schiaparelli, Chanel, Balenciaga, Dior, Biki, Marucelli, Fabiani, Schuberth, Galitzine and Capucci. 
Of all his precious finds, there is one that he deemed of utter importance and that he often compared to an archaeological discovery: an entire wardrobe of Madame Gallenga's creations. Born in Rome in 1880, Maria Monaci married doctor Pietro Gallenga in 1903. Madame Gallenga loved painting and she was particularly fascinated by the fabrics depicted in various Renaissance paintings.
An admirer of Mariano Fortuny, Gallenga started studying the art of textiles and at first produced panels and cushions printed in velvet. Famous artists of the time, such as artist Vittorio Zecchin, sculptor Antonio Maraini, architect Marcello Piacentini and costume designer Gino Sensani, provided her with the patterns for her fabrics or collaborated with her launching incredible partnerships. 
Gallenga was more a fabric designer than a dressmaker. She indeed created only three or four prototypes that, as the time passed, she kept on updating. Yet, all her models became the testament of her elegant taste: chiffon tunics, cloaks and jackets were produced in the lightest and most precious velvets. Fabrics – mainly chiffon and silk velvet – were her secret. Her bright blues, intense blacks and browns and blood-injected reds with silver and golden stencils became her trademark. Gallenga had indeed patented a system that employed metallic pigments to hand-print in silver and gold on any kind of fabric. In the late ‘20s she opened a shop in Paris with Bice Pittoni and Carla Visconti di Modrone. The Boutique Italienne, based in Rue Miromesnil, remained opened until 1934.
Tirelli was sort of obsessed by Gallenga’s work and, over the years, he bought through the designer’s son an entire wardrobe containing cloaks, dresses, scarves, fabrics, plus various objects of interior design, drawings, her patent for printing on fabrics and thousands of wooden blocks and moulds. Tirelli acquired some of the most beautiful pieces by Gallenga such as a brown silk velvet dress with a front and back panel with silver and gold prints and ample black chiffon wing-like sleeves and a dress with a stencilled golden dragon.
The Gallenga system allowed Tirelli to make some of the most beautiful costumes for films, theatre, opera and ballet shows. The Fendi sisters, friends of Tirelli, discovered Gallenga at his tailoring house and collaborated with him printing velvets for a collection of evening bags that was produced between the end of the ‘70s and the early ‘80s.
I recently stumbled on the Vintage Textile site upon some interesting garments by Gallenga that also have a strange Gothic quality: stencilled dresses, bags and shawls. 
The best and most astonishing piece is a green velvet cape with a thickly padded and ruched collar and a wide stencilled border featuring stylised plants, birds and mythical beasts. The price for this rare cape - acquired from the collection of designer and museum curator Charles Kleibacker - is $10,000. It might sound like a very high price, but this item has definitely got "museum value" and should be saved by someone with, yes, quite a bit of money in the bank, but above all a great understanding of fashion history.
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