It is not rare for some companies and fashion brands to organise a small exhibition during a trade show about their story. Yet, while that can be exciting, it also means that, unfortunately, you only get the chance to see its contents for a very limited amount of time.
Yarn manufacturer Lanerossi offered the chance to Pitti Uomo visitors, for example, to look at its history with a compact event entitled "Lanerossi - Threading Ideas for 200 Years". But those ones who missed it and are heading to Florence at the end of the month for Pitti Filati, will get a new chance to see it. The event is indeed on again (in the Teatrino Lorenese area inside the Fortezza da Basso) from 28th to 30th June.
The event - curated by Alessandra Bosco and Fiorella Bulegato - was organised by the Gruppo Marzotto and Filivivi (owned by the Marzotto Group) to celebrate the bicentennial of Lanerossi, the company founded by Francesco Rossi in Schio.
Marzotto (some of us who are interested in reading behind the mere catwalk show and are not afraid of analysing the financial news as well may remember it in connection with a tax evasion story in 2012) bought Lanerossi in 1987 and currently designs, manufactures and sells blankets and textiles under the Lanerossi brand.
Filivivi, the licensee of the Lanerossi Filati brand, manufactures and distributes rights for woollen yarns bearing the brand name. In addition to that, Filivivi also manufactures and distributes yarn under the Folco and Filivivi labels (their new collections together with Lanerossi's will be presented at the next Pitti Filati fair).
Apart from celebrating the company, "Threading Ideas for 200 Years" could actually be read as a celebration of early Italian graphic art and advertising design.
Adverts help a company shape its identity, they create a message that can reach out to people and Lanerossi was a pioneer in these fields since it often opted to employ styles and materials virtually unknown to the general public.
Besides, historians will easily be able to read behind the adverts from the Schio-based Lanerossi historical archive and discover the financial, manufacturing, social and cultural contexts that marked the history of Italy's textile industries.
Some examples? The conditions of the workers are highlighted by a poster for a "Workers' Day", a sort of fête with food, dancing sessions and fireworks to be held at the (very aptly named) Jacquard Garden in Schio on 20th February 1865.
A 1873 poster features instead the "Special regulations for spinners", showing the high standards for accident prevention measures in the Lanificio Rossi factory.
As the decades passed the company kept on focusing on the actual work of its artisans when advertising its products: while 1949 coloured photographs (by Pietrobelli, Ernst Mariner and Maria Freiberger) for window dressing for Lanerossi yarns, fabrics and rugs show the first trade fairs, ads from the '60s showed a factory worker checking the quality of the Lanerossi yarns and Rossifloor carpets.
Yet there is also an arty connection behind the images included in the event: the strongest part of the exhibition focuses indeed on the collaboration between Lanerossi and a group of artists and designers - including Adolfo Busi, Mario Dalle Nogare, Mario Panciroli (better known as "Marius"), Studio Stile, Armando Testa, Pino Tovaglia, Riccardo Manzi (who also collaborated with Pirelli), A. Maurizi, Severo Pozzati and Claudia Morgagni - or photographers such as Mauro Masera and Ugo Mulas and Italian animator Pier Luigi De Mas, who created some of the first TV adverts for Lanerossi blankets at the end of the '60s.
Colour and graphic-wise, the labels for yarns and blankets from the '20s and the '30s are particularly intriguing, while the sketches and executive drawings perfectly illustrate the development of the Lanerossi brand and logo from the early 1950s to the late 1960s.
The most interesting technique that emerges from the archives remains the collage: quite often the artists called to collaborate with Lanerossi combined their own sketches with samples of fabrics, labels and photographs to create eye-catching contrasts between different textures and layers.
Sketches from the '60s for Lanerossi advertising on a Fiat 1100 perfectly introduce the economic boom years and the pervasive influence of the mass media in the life of Italians.
Shame that Lanerossi seems currently focused on selling without promoting its product in a strong and innovative way as it did between the '50s and the '60s. "Threading Ideas for 200 Years" seems indeed to be lacking references to social media and ways to reach out to a new and younger consumers.
Still, if you're visiting Pitti Filati and you're into graphic design, take your time to look at some of the images and even textile samples from 1887, they will undoubtedly prove inspiring and even prompt some of the visitors to rediscover a few of the artists and illustrators who worked for the company.
Image credits for this post
Mario Panciroli (Marius), sketch with tempera illustration on paper for an advertisement for Lanerossi yarns, 1950s.
Collage sketches for the cover of the sample book for Lanerossi's Rossella fabrics, 1965.
Collage sketch for a Thermocoperte Lanerossi advertisement, late 1960s.
Studio Stile, publicity stand for Lanerossi's Rossella fabric, 1952.
Tempera sketch on paper with collage for a Lanerossi fabric postcard, 1960s.
Advertising postcard from the '40s.
Armando Testa, advertisement for Lanerossi fabrics, 1953.
Pino Tovaglia and Propaganda Lanerossi, advertisement for Lanerossi yarns, 1958.
Pino Tovaglia and Riccardo Manzi, collage sketches with tempera on card for advertisements for Lanerossi's Sandrina overcoat, late 1950s.
Collage sketches, advertisements and publicity stand for Lanerossi's Thermoplaid blanket, 1960s.
Cover of advertising brochure for lanificio Rossi thermotextiles designed by Adolfo Busi at the end of the '40s.
Detail of label for Sport Lane Rossi yarns from the '60s.
Advert for Superthermoplaid Lanerossi by Pino Tovaglia, 1958.
Photographs and sketches for advertising on a Fiat 1100 for Lanerossi, 1960s.
Pino Tovaglia and Propaganda Lanerossi, advertisement for Lanerossi yarns, 1958.
G&R Associati, sketches for Lanerossi advertisements, mid-1970s.
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