THE FOUNDATION
MICOL FONTANA FOUNDATION
The Micol Fontana Foundation is a non-profit association established in 1994 and declared an “Archive of considerable historical interest” by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage. With the Foundation that bears her name and of which she is president, Micol Fontana, Knight of the Grand Cross of the Italian Republic, carried out a project much loved and pursued with great determination, in homage to a life dedicated (with her sisters Zoe and Giovanna) to the world of Fashion. It aims at achieving cultural, educational and social goals, with active engagement of the Fontana grandchildren: Roberta, Luisella, Cristina, Giovanni, Gabriele and Mario, who are members of the Board of the Foundation. The great heritage bequeathed by the Atelier of the Fontana sisters, consisting of wearing apparel from 1940 to 1990, a vast collection of sketches, embroidery and accessories, a library, a newspaper archive, a photographic collection, is preserved in the Archive of the Foundation as a memory of the past, put at the service of the new generations. In the rooms of the Foundation, among the apparel on display, the models created for famous women are much admired, such as those made for Jacqueline Kennedy, Grace of Monaco, Soraya of Persia, the princesses of the House of Savoy, internationally renowned actresses, including Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Ursula Andress, and Ava Gardner, for whom beautiful stage clothes were created for films, including “The Barefoot Countess”, “The Sun Also Rises”, “The Bible”. The most precious and well-known model is the wedding dress created in 1949 for the marriage (celebrated in Rome) of Linda Christian to the famous Hollywood actor Tyrone Power: an event that, at the time, had extraordinary media resonance and contributed to the affirmation of the style of the Fontana Sisters, and, therefore, of Made in Italy, worldwide.
Today, the heart of the historic Atelier continues to live and arouse emotions, both as a guardian of the roots of Italian High Fashion, the maximum expression of great craftsmanship, as well as a design workshop and breeding ground for creativity, through the organisation of seminars, training courses, exhibitions, visits and cultural meetings.
As prestigious recognition of this great cultural, educational and social commitment, on May 24, 2004, the Fashion Institute of Technology of New York, on behalf of the State University of New York, awarded Micol Fontana an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts with the following motivation: “For the important role she played with her sisters Zoe and Giovanna in the rebirth of Italian Fashion and for her long dedication to teaching and promoting fashion in the world”.
Many of the Fontana Sisters’ creations are permanently exhibited in various museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Civic Museums of Venice.
Other creations have been admired on the occasion of temporary exhibitions of historical clothes: these are selected models among the most significant for the history of the Atelier, which has dressed celebrities from the world of entertainment and international high society: women who have made entire generations dream. Dresses almost like sculptures, worn by mannequins, which have found a perfect location in the magical atmosphere of art galleries, palaces and prestigious museums, including the Louvre in Paris, Castel Sant’Angelo and the Capitoline Museums in Rome, the MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Scuderie Pilotta in Parma, the Magnani Rocca Foundation in Traversetolo (PR), the Revoltella Museum in Trieste, and the Palazzo Cuttica in Alessandria, the Portland Art Museum, the Tokio National Museum, the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum om Florence, the Italian Pavilion Expo Dubai 2020 and the Bund 33 of Shaghai.
In 2011, the Micol Fontana Foundation was one of the seventeen international cultural institutions invited by Google to participate as a partner in the (then pilot) project of Google Arts & Culture, which today has over 2000 museums and archives in the world.
