Roberto Cavalli – fashion designer

Florentine who conceived the sand-blasted look for jeans

Roberto Cavalli

The designer Roberto Cavalli was born on this day in 1940 in Florence.

Cavalli has become well-known in high-end Italian fashion for his exotic prints and for creating the sand-blasted look for jeans.

From an artistic family, Cavalli has a grandfather, Giuseppe Rossi, who was a talented painter whose work is on show in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

As a student, Cavalli attended an art institute where he learnt about printing textiles and in the early 1970s he invented and patented a printing process for leather and began creating patchworks of different materials.

When he took samples of his work to Paris he received commissions from such fashion houses as Hermes and Pierre Cardin.

At the age of 32, Cavalli presented the first collection in his name in Paris and then showed it in Florence and Milan.

He opened his first boutique in Saint Tropez in 1972 and added further boutiques in Italy and other parts of France.

Roberto Cavalli with his wife Eva Duringer pictured
in Vienna in 2013

In 1994 he showed the first sand-blasted jeans in his autumn/winter collection and then worked with Lycra to invent stretch jeans in 1995.

In 2001 he opened his first café store in Florence and this was followed by the opening in Milan of the Just Cavalli café and another boutique on the fashionable Via della Spiga.

His clothes, menswear, jewellery and perfumes now sell all over the world.

Cavalli has two children from his first marriage and three from his second marriage. He met his second wife, Eva Duringer, when he was a judge at the 1977 Miss Universe contest, where she was representing Austria.

Leading female pop singers such as Christina Aguilera and Jennifer Lopez have asked Cavalli to create costumes for them and he also created the wardrobe worn by the Spice Girls on their reunion tour.

Catwalk stars such as Jessica Stam, Eva Riccobono and Laetitia Casta are among the models who have helped promote his designs. 

In 2011 he told Vogue Magazine that he was reluctant to retire, saying ‘…fashion is a part of my DNA. I could never live without it.’

The Piazzale degli Uffizi Gallery in Florence

Travel tip:

Work on the Uffizi began in 1560 in order to create a suite of offices (uffici) for the new administration of Cosimo I. The architect, Vasari, created a wall of windows on the upper storey and from about 1580, the Medici began to use this well-lit space to display their art treasures, which was the start of one of the oldest and most famous art galleries in the world. The present day Uffizi Gallery, in Piazzale degli Uffizi, is open from 8.15 am to 6.50 pm from Tuesday to Sunday.

Chic Via della Spiga in Milan

Travel tip:

The Via della Spiga, where Cavalli opened a boutique, is one of Milan’s top shopping streets, forming the north-east boundary of the city’s fashion quarter, of which Via Manzoni, Via Monte Napoleone and Corso Venezia form the other borders. Details of the other shops in Via della Spiga can be found at the Amici di Via della Spiga website.

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Maria Cristina of Savoy

Pious princess was beatified by Pope Francis

Maria Cristina of Savoy

Princess Maria Cristina Carlotta Giuseppina Gaetana Elisa of Savoy was born on this day in 1812 in Cagliari on the island of Sardinia.

She was the youngest child of King Victor Emmanuel I of Piedmont-Sardinia and his wife Queen Maria Teresa of Austria-Este.

Maria Cristina was described as beautiful, but she was also modest and pious and in 2014 she was beatified by the current Pope, Francis.

As a Savoy princess she had been expected to make an advantageous marriage alliance and when she was just 20 years of age she was married to Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, in an attempt to keep southern Italy on friendly terms, at a ceremony in Genoa.

Modest and reserved, she was never comfortable at the royal court in Naples and she was unhappy with Ferdinand. But she was said to be loved by the ordinary people of the Two Sicilies, who were charmed by her beauty and kindness.

Maria Cristina died only five days after giving
birth to her son, Francis

She had always been a devout Catholic and her commitment to God and the Church along with her beauty caused people to regard her as an angelic figure.

She gave birth to her only child, who would grow up to become Francis II of the Two Sicilies, in January 1836. Five days later she died as a result of childbirth complications. The King married again in less than a year.

After her son, Francis II, had lost his throne and was living in exile he began to push for the Church to take up his late mother’s cause for beatification.

Nearly 40 years later in 1872 she was declared to be a Servant of God by Pope Pius IX. In May 1937 she was declared to be a Venerable Servant of God by Pope Pius XI and in May 2013 Pope Francis authorised a decree recognising a miracle due to her intercession, a further stage on her progress to beatification. The beatification ceremony was conducted by the current Pope in January 2014 at the Basilica of Santa Chiara in Naples, where the now Blessed Maria Cristina is buried.

The Castello is the historic centre of Cagliari

Travel tip:

Maria Cristina was born in Cagliari in Sardinia while the Savoy family were living there in exile, having been forced to leave their palace in Turin in Piedmont because the city was under French occupation. Although Cagliari is Sardinia’s main port and an industrial centre it is now also a popular tourist destination, with tree-lined boulevards and a charming historic centre, known as Castello.

The tomb of Maria Cristina of Savoy in the Basilica
of Santa Chiara in Naples

Travel tip:

Maria Cristina was buried in the Church of Santa Chiara in Via Benedetto Croce, part of Spaccanapoli in Naples. The church is part of a religious complex, which also includes a monastery and an archaeological museum. Maria Cristina’s tomb is in a side chapel along with the tomb of Salvo d’Acquisto, a carabiniere who sacrificed his life to save the lives of 22 civilian hostages during the Nazi occupation of Italy. Outside is the famous majolica Cloister, which was decorated in 1742 with brightly-coloured majolica tiles by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro.

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Alberto Lattuada – film director

Versatility and eye for talent made him leading figure

Alberto Lattuada helped launch many
careers in Italian cinema

A leading figure in the Italian cinema, Alberto Lattuada was born on this day in 1914 in Vaprio d’Adda in Lombardy.

Lattuada was the son of the composer Felice Lattuada, who made him complete his studies as an architect before allowing him to enter the film business.

As a student, Lattuada was a member of the editorial staff of the antifascist publication Camminare and also of Corrente di Vita, an independent newspaper. Corrente di Vita was closed by the Fascist regime just before Italy entered the Second World War.

Lattuada, who is said to have detested fascism, helped to organise a screening of a banned anti-war film at about this time, which got him into trouble with the police.

In 1940 Lattuada started his cinema career as a screenwriter and assistant director on Mario Soldati’s Piccolo mondo antico (Old-Fashioned World).

He directed his own first movie, Giacomo l’idealista (Giacomo the Idealist) in 1942.

Lattuada with Federico Fellini (left) on the set of the
latter's first movie in 1950

In 1950 he co-directed Luci del Varietà with Federico Fellini. This was the first film directed by Fellini.

In the 1960s his best film is considered to be Il Mafioso, in which he helped Alberto Sordi give one of his best performances as a miserable desk clerk who in return for a family favour finds himself obliged to become a hit man for a mafia killing in New York.

Lattuada’s film La Steppa, made in 1962, was entered at the 12th Berlin International Film Festival. And in 1970 he was a member of the jury at the 20th Berlin International Film Festival.

His work as a director spanned almost every genre and he helped launch the careers of many film stars, whose talent he had recognised.

Lattuada married the actress Carla del Poggio in 1945 and they had two sons, Francesco and Alessandro. The couple were still together when he died in 2005 at the age of 90. He is buried in the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan.

The ferry boast designed by Leonardo da Vinci

Travel tip:

Vaprio d’Adda, where Alberto Lattuada was born is about 30km (18 miles) northeast of Milan in Lombardy. One of the main sights is the Villa Melzi, where Leonardo da Vinci stayed when studying channelling of waters in the area. The villa has a fresco of the Madonna with Child that has been attributed to him or his school. A ferry boat designed by Da Vinci still operates on the river, linking Villa d'Adda with Imbersago.

Lake Como was formed by the waters of the Adda

Travel tip:

The Adda river, which rises in the Alps close to the Swiss border, initially flows from east to west, which is unusual for a river in Italy, before turning south to join the Po river just upstream from Cremona.  Some 313km (194 miles) in length, it passes through several important towns and cities such as Bormio, Sondrio, Lecco and Lodi, as well as some smaller historic towns such as Trezzo, Crespina and Cassano.  The waters from the Adda were responsible for forming Lake Como.

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Treaty of Rapallo 1920

Agreement solves dispute over former Austrian territory

Members of the German and Russian delegations meet
at the Rapallo negotiations

The Treaty of Rapallo between Italy and the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was signed on this day in 1920 in Rapallo near Genoa in Liguria.

It was drawn up to solve the dispute over territories formerly controlled by Austria in the upper Adriatic and Dalmatia, which were known as the Austrian Littoral.

There had been tension between Italy and the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes since the end of the First World War when the Austro-Hungarian empire was dissolved.

Italy had claimed the territories assigned to it by the secret London Pact of 1915 between Italy and the Triple Entente.

The Pact, signed on 26 April 2015, stipulated that in the event of victory in the First World War, Italy was to gain territory formerly controlled by Austria in northern Dalmatia.

A dinner menu from the Grand Hotel in Genoa signed by
members of the Russian and German delegations

These territories had a mixed population but Slovenes and Croats accounted for more than half.

The London Pact was nullified by the Treaty of Versailles at the end of the war after pressure from American President Woodrow Wilson. Therefore the objective of the Treaty of Rapallo two years later was to find a compromise.

At the end of discussions, Italy was granted parts of Carniola, the whole of the former Austrian Littoral, which included the important city of Trieste, the former Dalmatian capital of Zadar, known as Zara in Italian, and two small Dalmatian islands.

The city of Rijeka, known as Fiume in Italian, was to become an independent free state, ending the military occupation of Gabriele D’Annunzio’s troops. He was forced to evacuate Fiume after Italian forces bombed the city on December 27, 1920.

The Castle at Rapallo

Travel tip:

Rapallo, which gives its name to the important 1920 treaty, is a seaside resort on the Riviera di Levante near Portofino and Genoa in Liguria. It has a castle overlooking the sea built in 1551 to repel pirate attacks, a 12th century church, the Basilica of Saints Gervasius and Protasius, two historic towers and a ruined monastery. Max Beerbohm, Ezra Pound and Jean Sibelius all chose to live in Rapallo for part of their lives.

The Piazza dell'Unita in Trieste looking out towards the sea

Travel tip:

The beautiful seaport of Trieste officially became part of the Italian Republic in 1954 and is now the capital of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, one of the most prosperous areas of Italy. The city lies towards the end of a narrow strip of land situated between the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia and is also just 30 kilometres north of Croatia. Trieste had been disputed territory for thousands of years and after it was granted to Italy in 1920, thousands of the resident Slovenians left. The final border with Yugoslavia was settled in 1975 with the Treaty of Osimo. This is now the present day border between Italy and Slovenia. Today Trieste is a lively, cosmopolitan city and a major centre for trade and ship building.

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