Giovanni Battista Giorgini

Giovanni Battista Giorgini was part of the Giorgini family, descending from a noble family from Lucca. His great-grandfather Carlo was a Deputy of the Kingdom of Italy; he was the brother of Senator Giovanni Battista Giorgini, and brother-in-law of Vittoria Manzoni, the eighth daughter of the writer Alessandro Manzoni. His father, Vittorio Giorgini (1860-1919), helped his brother Alessandro in the family business dedicated to the marble trade, but he had an artistic spirit. His mother, Florence Rochat (1860-1942) was Waldensian and originally from Francophone Switzerland. The boy grew up in a cultured and cosmopolitan environment, and he undertook classical studies at the University of Pisa.

At the age of 17, he followed his family footsteps and enrolled as a volunteer as soldier to participate in the First World War. Impressed by the horrors of the war promoted the Christian Youth Association, equivalent to the evangelical organization YMCA.

In 1921, he married Zaira Augusta Nanni, with whom he had three children: Graziella, Vittorio and Matilde.

In 1922, he moved to Florence, where he decided to start his own business by opening the "GB Giorgini & Co. Import-export" in Calzaioli street number 9. He actively promoted Tuscan art, antiques and crafts, and in 1924 he made his first business trip to the United States. This trip was particularly difficult because at that time Italian exporters were not regarded well overseas. He decided to develop contacts with the "Italian House of Columbia University", "Italian American Society" and the YMCA, and in the meantime he managed to select high-quality Italian craftsmanship.

The financial crisis of 1929 dealt a heavy blow to his work, and forced him to close his New York office. The years that followed were very unstable until the end of the Second World War, when the Allies entrusted him with the management of the "Allied Forces Gift Shop" of Florence, a pole in charge of selling products to Anglo-American troops. In those years he quickly recovered contacts with all the Italian artisans whom he had worked before the war, and, of course, with the American buyers.

In the wake of the war, the skillful businessman saw potential in the Italian fashion, then almost unknown in the world. Everything took place in Paris, where the few non-French designers opened their ateliers (Cristobal Balenciaga, Elsa Schiaparelli, etc.). Giovanni Battista Giorgini took the initiative organising the "First Italian High Fashion Show" at his private residence in Florence at Villa Torrigiani. The show took place on February 12, 1951 in the presence of six major American buyers, who, as he himself said in various interviews, went to Florence for a simple courtesy visit.[1] These were: Gertrude Ziminsky of B. Altman and Company in New York, John Nixon of Morgan's in Montreal, Jessica Daves of American Vogue, Ethel Frankau and Julia Trissel of Bergdorf Goodman in New York, and Stella Hanania of I. Magnin in San Francisco. Giorgini had planned to present 18 models from 10 Italian fashion houses. The Italian couturiers who presented at the show were: Princess Giovanna Caracciolo of Atelier Carosa, Alberto Fabiani, Duchess Simonetta Colonna di Cesaro Visconti of Simonetta, Emilio Schuberth, Sorelle Fontana, Jole Veneziani, Vanna (the trade name used by the tailors Anna Carmeli and Manette Valente), Vita Noberasko, and Germana Marucelli. The prêt-à-porter designers were Emilio Pucci, Giorgio Avolio, Baroness Clarette Gallotti of La Tessitrice Dell'Isola, and Marquise Olga di Grésy of Mirsa. Giorgini's resourcefulness, the quality of the products, the buyers' reputation, and the support of some journalists like Irene Brin, who as Italian editor for Harper's Bazaar advertised the event overseas, decreed its success.

It was an exceptional event, because from that moment the world really started to talk about Italian fashion. The second fashion show took place in July 1951 in the halls of the "Grand Hotel" in Florence.[2] Beginning in 1952, two seasons of fashion shows per year (one in January and the other in July) were organized in the historic parade of the Sala Bianca of Palazzo Pitti in Florence with the stylists Sartoria Antonelli, Roberto Capucci, Vincenzo Ferdinandi, the Atelier Carosa, Giovanelli Sciarra, Polinober, Germana Marucelli, the Sartoria Vanna, Jole Veneziani and sixteen companies presented sportswear and boutiques. A very young Oriana Fallaci sent by the weekly Epoca told the news. In 1954, the Florence Center for Italian Fashion was born, with its first director Mario Vannini Parenti.

In the 1960s, Giovanni Battista Giorgini succeeded in conquering the Japanese market, selling Italian creations to Isetan, one of the most important department stores in the country. His understanding of the importance of prêt-à-porter led to the early success of Florentine fashion shows, but this became a cause of conflict with the great Roman fashion houses that, in 1967, decided to create competing Haute Couture fashion shows directly in Rome.

Giorgini died on January 2, 1971 in Florence, at Villa Torrigiani (The Torrigiani Garden), and was buried in the Cimitero degli Allori (cemetery) in Senese street.

His personal archive was filed in 2005 by his nephew Neri Fadigati at the Florence State Archives.

• Made in Italy: alta moda - Rai Teche.