There are different ways to discover more about the history of fashion and of a specific designer, from visiting an archive, library or museum to meeting people who may have worked for a historical fashion house. Yet there is also another way to find out more about such topics: reading through the fabrics, stiches and construction of a gown. You may argue, it may not be easy to find a piece to study, but maybe you may stumble upon it in a vintage shop or even in a friends' wardrobe.
While looking through some family heirlooms a United States-based fashion fan Andrea Jones found it in her grandmother's wardrobe. Here she discovered a powdery pink satin gown by Germana Marucelli.
Born in Florence, the Italian designer learnt the dressmaker's art from her mother and, when she was 11 years old, she created by herself the draped motif that decorated her cousin's wedding gown.
As a teenager Marucelli worked with her aunt in Florence and often went to Paris where she observed and assimilated everything she saw and, thanks to her visual memory, learnt to perfectly reproduce the designs she saw on the French runways.
She started working for the Ventura tailoring house, and, when Fascism imposed Italian designers to support the national products and forbade them to copy French models, Marucelli kept on going to Parisian fashion shows, rebelling to Fascism's restrictive fashion rules.
She moved to Milan but, after the war broke out, Marucelli kept on creating her fashion designs in Stresa where many wealthy ladies were living.
At the end of the war, the designer decided to start her own maison and created her own trademark style, leaving behind French fashion. There is actually proof that, while some of her creations anticipated Dior's New Look, both Dior and Balmain actually lifted and interpreted some of her ideas and reproduced them in their collections (you can read about her surprised reaction about being plagiarised by French designers in the booklet Le favole del ferro da stiro, a memoir written in Italian by Fernanda Pivano in 1964, but never translated in any other language).
Marucelli had indeed started creating pioneering styles: she introduced a sort of poetical Dolce Stil Novo fashion in 1951 with elegant Empire styles, and started a sort of partnership with many artists and intellectuals, such as Giuseppe Ungaretti, Alberto Savinio, Eugenio Montale and Salvatore Quasimodo. She even launched a literary award and designed collections inspired by art.
Together with set-designer and artist Pietro Zuffi she created at the end of the '40s a collection inspired by Peruvian art; painter Campigli came up with motifs for her 1951 Spring-Summer collection and, in later designs, she paid homage to Picasso, Beato Angelico and Botticelli.
In the '60s Marucelli took inspiration for her Empire line from Giacomo Manzù's sculptures of bishops, created optical designs inspired by Giuseppe Capogrossi's black and white geometries and collaborated with artist and architect Paolo Scheggi and with experimental artist Getulio Alviani (who introduced her to kinetic art and Op Art).
Andrea Jones' gown is from a transition period and can probably be dated from the late 1940s, so from around the time Marucelli had started working on her own designs, leaving behind French styles. It is rare to find pieces by Marucelli but not impossible, especially when it comes to designs from the '60s that clearly show connections with key Italian artists.
This piece is instead rather rare because it includes architectural and well-sculpted features and perfectly shows Marucelli's first steps towards her own trademark style via pleated elements. The gown features indeed a pleated motif around the breast area and in the back, an effect that was launched by Marucelli in a 1949 collection and replicated by Dior in 1951. This is the sort of gown that Marucelli would have made for the wealthy ladies going to the opening of the season at Milan's La Scala.
Can you tell us more about how did you come into owning this rare gown?
Andrea Jones: This gown belonged to my grandmother, I came upon it with other garments from her collection through inheritance.
Do you have any glamorous stories about her?
Andrea Jones: Her husband, my grandfather, was a very successful "Ad-Man" in San Francisco, so they were members of high society of the time and hosted - as well as attended - glamorous events and parties across the globe.
Do you know which designers she favoured?
Andrea Jones: She loved Dior, Chanel, and Valentino.
Do you have any pictures of your grandmother in some of her dresses or do you have a story about somebody famous meeting her?
Andrea Jones: My grandparents had numerous fashionable and famous friends from the 1950s, among them Bing Crosby and Dean Martin who were very close to them. Bing gave my grandfather a personally inscribed money clip for Christmas the year I was born, that was also included in my inheritance.
Do you know where she may have bought this gown or how she acquired it?
Andrea Jones: My grandparents traveled extensively in the late 1940s and 1950s, Italy being one of their favorites, my mother believes she very well could have met with Germana Marucelli, and possibly acquired it directly from her or from her atelier.
Do you think you may date it?
Andrea Jones: It appears to have a few of the identifiers from Marucelli’s 1949/50 collection that is rumored to have inspired Christian Dior's 1951 collection. The masterful draping and radiating pleating, the engineering and craftsmanship of this gown is simply stunning, and I am grateful my grandmother was meticulous in her preservation of it.
Did you ever wear it yourself to any special occasions?
Andrea Jones: I have tried it on a few times, you can actually feel the designer's understanding of the female form through the expert tailoring and construction of the gown - the thoughtful placement of the bodice boning, along with the impeccably dramatic pleating that cascades from waist to hem, well, you can't help but wish this gown could talk!
Would you ever sell the gown?
Andrea Jones: Considering that gowns by Germana Marucelli from this era, and in this condition, are quite rare, I would love to see this go to one of the museums that preserve historical fashion, or to a confirmed collector with a like mind.