Made in Italy is the label, and by now the reputation, attached to Italian fashion, leather goods, design and food: fine materials, careful craftsmanship and a certain ease. In fashion its birthday is usually given as 12 February 1951.
That day the Florentine businessman Giovanni Battista Giorgini hosted the First Italian High Fashion Show in his own home, Villa Torrigiani, presenting couture and sportswear from names such as Sorelle Fontana, Emilio Schuberth, Jole Veneziani and Emilio Pucci to a handful of American buyers. On his travels in the United States, Giorgini had noticed that American shoppers wanted simpler, more wearable clothes than Paris offered, and when a plan to show Italian fashion in America fell through, he brought the buyers to Florence instead. From 1952 the shows moved to the Sala Bianca of Palazzo Pitti, every January and July. Milan later took the spotlight, but Florence keeps the rights to the opening chapter.