In March 1959 the Italian edition of Grazia magazine launched a series of touring catwalk shows open to the public in collaboration with the cotton mill Legler. The shows included sixty dresses created by famous Italian designers.
All the garments were different, but there was a unifying element - the quality of the fabrics. Legler had indeed patented Spring/Summer fabrics that wouldn't stress or stain, but dried quickly and didn't have to be ironed, key points to save time to many women in those days.
The prints of the textiles came in colourful and bright patterns, and stripes were a recurrent motif as the examples included in this post show.
The first dress with bold red and white stripes and characterised by a sort of cape-like motif around the shoulders was designed by Shuberth and was dubbed "Vacanze Romane" (Roman Holiday). Biki called her dress "Laguna" (Lagoon) and added a yellow chiffon scarf to emphasise the waist.
The third model in this post is Carosa's "Taormina" and was characterised by blue vertical stripes separating sections with a floral print. The last image shows Giuliano's model: called "Primo Incontro" (First date) it featured large and functional pockets decorated wih long ribbons.
The most interesting thing about this event organised by Grazia and Legler was the fact that the catwalk show didn't encourage the readers to buy the dresses, but to make them after buying the fabric, so the people going to see the shows (that touched quite a few cities from the South to the North of Italy) were actually allowed to copy the models (after buying the pattern - and the pattern was usually affordable) and alter them as much as they wanted.
What if the touring catwalk shows open to a public of DIY passionate people keen on learning and reproducing the models adding their own creative input to them were a desirable solution for the much criticised modern fashion industry?
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