In 1963 Jackie Kennedy invited Georgian designer Irene Galitzine to the White House. In a letter to Galitzine, Jackie stated: "Every evening Jayne (Wrightsman), Marella (Agnelli), Lee (Radziwill) and I wear your uniform".
The uniform Jackie Kennedy mentioned in the letter is the elegant pyjama ensemble dubbed "Palazzo Pyjamas" by Diana Vreeland and launched by Galitzine at the beginning of the '60s.
Galitzine was born in 1916 to Prince Boris Galitzine and Princess Nina Lazareff and moved to Italy when the family fled from Russia. She studied art and design in Rome and, after three years at the Fontana sisters working as a model and PR officer, she established her own fashion house.
This year the "Palazzo Pyjama" turns 60: it was indeed showcased for the first time in 1960 during a runway in the Sala Bianca at Palazzo Pitti, in Florence.
Galitzine created it as an alternative design for luxury holidays: tired of wearing Emilio Pucci's Capri trousers that had become the trademark uniform of many ladies holidaying in Italy, she came up with an innovative ensemble that she initially made with Thai silks.
Conceived as Haute Couture, but soon transformed into a more accessible boutique version, the "Palazzo Pyjamas" comprised a tunic-like top, often sleeveless, and cigarette trousers and came in luxurious fabrics such as silk and with bejewelled collars and beaded hems, or with no embellishments, but in bold and bright shades, often reminiscent of the palette of Renaissance paintings.
The origins of the term came from the pyjamas donned in the 1920s by society women who opted for silk outfits to entertain at home, but Galitzine's "Palazzo Pyjamas" was an elegant yet functional statement that contributed to make more acceptable for women to wear trousers.
At the beginning of the '60s trousers were still a male prerogative, but creating a trouser outfit in bold colours or decorated with faux gems and stones allowed women to opt for a practical piece, avoiding at the same time of being criticised for looking masculine.
This uniform was adopted by many elegant ladies and often appeared in films and in the wardrobes of fashionable film actresses such as Claudia Cardinale who wore the ensemble in Blake Edwards' The Pink Panther; while various designers started producing their own versions of the Palazzo Pyjamas, among them Emilio Pucci, Forquet, Fabiani, Mila Schön, Valentino and Ken Scott.
In the mid-to-late 1960s, Palazzo Pyjamas came to be associated with wide-legged trousers like the ones featured in the pages of a famous Grazia photoshoot from 1965 by Elsa Haertter, with models posing in front of temples in Bangkok and Ayutthaya, wearing a variety of ensembles going from Ken Scott's interpretations of the Palazzo Pyjamas in white and blue or in floral prints to Valentino's extra wide gold and pink brocade trousers that went well with the shapes of the architectures behind the models.
The idea of Palazzo Pyjamas became popular in Italy during the Coronavirus lockdown (measures were loosened in the last few days as the country is slowly rebooting), with a few fashionistas bringing back the concept of casual yet elegant at-home wear on Instagram.
Bit if you don't have any Palazzo Pyjamas in your wardrobe, don't despair: you can still dream about wearing some original designs from the '60s by checking the archives of museums around the world.
There are some designs by Galitzine from the early '60s at the Victoria & Albert Museum, while the Philadelphia Museum of Art has got a jumpsuit with a skirt by Galitzine, an ensemble that derives from the Palazzo Pyjamas and that is particularly beautiful for its vibrant colours and for the contrast between the beaded (jumpsuit) and unbeaded (skirt) fabric that enhances the drama of this piece and that will definitely lift your spirit if you're still in lockdown.
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