LE SORELLE FONTANA
ZOE, MICOL AND GIOVANNA FONTANA
THE HISTORY
1960 – The Fontana sisters (from the left Zoe, Micol, Giovanna) – Photo by Arturo Ghergo
The story of the Fontana sisters begins in the early years of the twentieth century in a small hamlet near Parma, Traversatolo: here, in the tailor shop that had belonged to their great-grandmother, their mother Amabile introduced them to the tailoring profession while they were still quite young.
Very soon Zoe, Micol and Giovanna found their winning formula in working together. They were convinced of their ability and began to think about what initially seemed to be only a dream: to go to a big city and expand their business.
In 1936, Zoe, the oldest, takes the first step towards the future, uncertain but exciting. A big city, but which one between Milan and Rome? Uncertain of the direction to take, she let fate decide for her, as she got on the first train passing through the Parma station. A train arrived heading south, towards the capital. It was not difficult for Zoe to find a job at a tailor’s shop and she was soon joined first, by her sisters, then, by her parents, Amabile and Giovanni.
Craftsmanship and intuition made their creations unique. Among their first clients, ladies of the aristocracy: the Marquise Marita Guglielmi, Donna Marella Caracciolo Agnelli, Gioia Marconi. By the end of the war and thanks to the presence of the Cinecittà studios, Rome became one of the favourite destinations of movie stars, especially from Hollywood. The big opportunity came for the sisters in 1949 when they made Linda Christian’s dress for her wedding to Tyrone Power in Rome: a front-page event that filled the rotogravures around the world. This circumstance opened the doors of the international jet-set to the three sisters. Their collaboration with the world of cinema became intense: Ava Gardner, of whom Micol became a confidant and dear friend, repeatedly wanted it to be specified in her contracts that she only wanted the Fontana sisters to make her costumes. For her, the clothes of the films “The Barefoot Contessa” (1954), “The Sun Also Rises” (1957) and “On the Beach” (1959) were made by them. Also for her the cassock dress called “pretino” was made, and it was taken up later on (to Gardner’s disappointment) for Anita Ekberg by Fellini for the film “La Dolce Vita“.
1955 – Ava Gardner wears the “Pretino” dress of the Fall Winter 1955/56 “Cardinal line” Collection. The idea of the dress was then taken up by Federico Fellini for Anita Ekberg in “La Dolce Vita”, 1959.
1957 – Ava Gardner, Walter Chiari and Micol Fontana pose on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the activity of the Fontana Sisters (1907-1957).
1954 – Elisabeth Taylor wears a Fontana sisters evening gown.
The Fontana sisters also designed the wedding dress that Audrey Hepburn had made for her during her stay in Rome for the filming of “Roman Holidays“. Abandoning the idea of that wedding, after the dress had already been made, the actress decided to leave her dress to one of the workers. Grace of Monaco, Margaret Truman, Jacqueline Kennedy, the Savoy Princesses, Soraya and many others soon became loyal customers. Also Mirna Loy, Liz Taylor, Ursula Andress, Rita Hayworth, Jayne Mansfield, Barbara Stanwick, Michéle Morgan chose the style of the Fontana sisters both for films and for their private lives.
In 1952, the film “Three Girls from Rome” was released, in which Luciano Emmer told the story of three young seamstresses. The story was pure fantasy, but the workshops where the film was shot were the real ones: the Fontana atelier. Zoe also made her cinematic appearance. In the wake of the film’s success, Micol chose three female wearers, Lilly Cerasoli, Elsa Martinelli, and Iris Bianchi, as testimonials for the film. Dressed in white, red and green, they were the ambassadors (together with Micol) of Made in Italy by Fontana, on a long American tour from New York to San Francisco.
America, Europe, Russia. Once known throughout the Western World, Fontana fashionably lacked the conquest of the East. Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta, Sydney, and the Fiji Islands were the stops on Micol’s next trip. Many contacts were made with points of sale in the most prestigious stores, such as in Japan, and they were not limited only to women’s fashion, but also expanded to a series of accessories for home furnishings, up to a moment in which they celebrated fifteen years of activity in Tokyo in 1988. Later, they also started a new semi-industrial clothing line called “Piccola Fontana”a second clothing line, aimed at a young audience.
In the eighties, they worked with important companies and authorities, designing the uniforms of airlines and international institutions. In 1984, the Fontana sisters donated 6400 drawings from the 1950s and 1960s to the CSAC University of Parma for the historical archive of their Centro Studi.
In 1988, the mayor of Rome, Nicola Signorello, decided to name a street in the capital after Zoe Fontana. In 1996 Micol Fontana was awarded the title of Knight of the Grand Cross of the Italian Republic, and in 2011 she received the Capitoline Wolf on Capitol Hill, the highest honor conferred by the mayor of Rome.
Currently their clothes are in prestigious exhibition spaces, while the Micol Fontana Foundation, created in 1994 as a non-profit association, participates in exhibitions and initiatives to protect the historical heritage of Italian High Fashion, promoting seminars and training courses aimed at the new generations.
ITALIANS WITH PAOLO MIELI
A series of episodes dedicated to great Italian personalities, introduced by Paolo Mieli, who made the history of our country. Biographies built through the contribution of repertoire materials, testimonies and vintage photographs. In 2018, “Sorelle Fontana: una questione di stile” was made: the documentary tells the story of Giovanna, Micol and Zoe Fontana and their creations, as three women who spread Italian haute couture all over the world.
“ATELIER FONTANA. LE SORELLE DELLA MODA”
The Rai miniseries dedicated to the Fontana sisters.
“ATELIER FONTANA. Le sorelle della moda” a Rai Fiction and Lux Vide co-production, produced by Matilde and Luca Bernabei under the direction of Riccardo Milani, subject and screenplay by Lucia Zei. Loosely based on Micol Fontana’s autobiographical novel “Specchio a tre luci” (edited by Dino Cimagalli, Nuova Eri, 1991), the two-part miniseries, broadcast their in prime time on Rai Uno on 27 and 28 February 2011, tells the life and career of the three inimitable Fontana sisters, Zoe, Micol and Giovanna, starting from their childhood in Traversatolo in the family tailor shop, up to the triumphs in the capital, when they were able to dress beautiful women as the protagonists of international cinema.
The three protagonists are Anna Valle (Zoe), Alessandra Mastronardi (Micol) and Federica De Cola (Giovanna). The participation of Piera Degli Esposti in the role of Princess Caetani and Gianni Cavina in the role of their father, Giovanni Fontana, was extraordinary.
The Micol Fontana Foundation participated in the production with the exceptional loan of some of the original outfits from the 1950s.
Reaching record-breaking ratings that touched 9 million viewers with almost a 30 percent share, the miniseries achieved the highest result for a fiction program in recent years. It also was broadcast in several countries such as Brazil, the United States, Argentina, Uzbekistan.
“The extraordinary success of the miniseries about the Fontana sisters” – comments Fabrizio Del Noce, director of Rai Fiction – “shows that despite the multiplication of channels and strong competition, it is possible to gather such a wide audience with a story that speaks of the history of our country, of people, and values such as commitment, tenacity and ability, which have made it great. The story of three women from the province who manage to realize their dream and represent the Italian style in the world has been able to involve audiences of all ages” (Rome, 2 Mar. 2001, Adnkronos).
Artistic Cast: Micol Fontana: Alessandra Mastronardi; Zoe Fontana: Anna Valle; Giovanna Fontana: Federica De Cola; Enrico: Marco Bocci; Leonardo: Marco Foschi; Mamma Amabile: Anna Bonaiuto; Mazzocchi: Massimo Wertmuller; Linda Christian: Hariett Mcmasters-Green; Nonna Zeide: Ariella Reggio; and with the participation of Piera Degli Esposti in the role of Princess Catani, and Gianni Cavina in the role of Giovanni Fontana.
Technical Cast: Subject and screenplay: Lucia Zei; Story editor: Cecilia Spera; Casting: Teresa Razzauti; Production directors: Marco Olivieri and Alberto Saracchi; Costumes: Enrica Biscossi with the collaboration of Angelo Poretti and Monica Saracchini; Set design: Antonello Geleng; Furniture: Marina Pinzuti Ansolini and Valentino Salvati; Make-up: Giancarlo del Brocco and Francesca De Simone; Director of photography: Saverio Guarna; Post production: Rosario Ranieri: Editing: Alessandro Corradi; Music: Andrea Guerra; Creative producer: Sara Melodia; General organiser: Nicolò Forte; Executive producer: Daniele Passani; Rai producer: Fania Petrocchi; Produced by Luca Bernabei; Director: Riccardo Milani.
2011, The three Fontana sisters in the miniseries: from the left Federica De Cola is Giovanna, Alessandra Mastronardi plays Micol, Anna Valle is Zoe Fontana. Photo: Micol Fontana Foundation.
Micol Fontana on the set of the miniseries “Atelier Fontana. Le sorelle della moda” with the three leading actresses.
PUBLICATIONS
SPECCHIO A TRE LUCI
Micol Fontana and Dino Cimagalli
Editor: Nuova Eri
It’s 1938. Three sisters, provincial seamstresses, attempt the Roman adventure. Their names are Zoe, Micol, Giovanna. Micol Fontana today tells the extraordinary story of herself and her sisters and their atelier in Piazza di Spagna, of which an infinity of Hollywood celebrities were loyal customers.
LO STILE DELL’ALTA MODA ITALIANA
Curated by Bonizza Giordani Aragno
Fondazione Micol Fontana
Bonizza Giordani, a scholar of Costume and Contemporary Fashion, professor of Fashion History, traces the events of Italian fashion together with extraordinary witnesses such as the Fontana Sisters. A book-catalogue to tell the story of the “900 IL SECOLO DELLA MODA” (“THE 1900s, CENTURY OF FASHION”). The volume makes use of a rich photographic documentation that portrays celebrities from the international Jet set and famous Hollywood film stars, sketches dating from 1940 onwards, and extraordinary testimonies and unpublished documents.
VIVERE CON ELEGANZA
Micol Fontana
Editor: Piemme
Create in us and around us, for ourselves and for those we love, an atmosphere of serenity, beauty and balance. This is the secret of elegance, which this book aims to reveal and offer to its readers. From birth to the golden wedding, in everyday events or on “special” occasions, how to dress, how to behave, how to introduce yourself to others, what mistakes to avoid and what gestures to make to always be in harmony with ourselves and the environment around us, in a manual of elegance that is also a friendly conversation about the art of living.
Books can be requested directly from the Micol Fontana Foundation by sending an email to shop@fondazionemicolfontana.it
