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- July 1962, Hat show in the Sala Bianca, Palazzo Pitti © Archivio Foto Locchi.
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- July 1958, Fashion at Palazzo Strozzi © Archivio Foto Locchi.
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- July 1953, Ball at Boboli © Archivio Foto Locchi.
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- January 1952, Fashion at the Grand Hotel © Archivio Foto Locchi.
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- Foto Locchi art and photography technique studio in its historic headquarters in piazza della Repubblica in 1936 © Archivio Foto Locchi.
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- January 1955, Cocktail dresses on the catwalk at the Sala Bianca, Palazzo Pitti © Archivio Foto Locchi.
Florence’s leading photography archive Archivio Foto Locchi has extended its treasures to the city with an exhibition titled Fashion in Florence through the lens of Archivio Foto Locchi.
On show in the Pitti Palace’s Andito degli Angiolini until March 5, 2017, 100 very rare pictures taken from the 1930s to ‘70s tell the story of fashion in Florence through the lens of the photo reporters of Foto Locchi.
The project stems from a collaboration between Archivio Storico Foto Locchi (a cultural patrimony of priceless value comprising more than five million photographs), director of the Uffizi Galleries Eike Schmidt, the Centro di Firenze per la Moda Italiana – thanks to which the exhibition will be inaugurated with an event during Pitti Immagine Uomo – and Gruppo Editoriale publishing group.
The exhibition displays photography of the workshops dedicated to high craftsmanship such as Salvatore Ferragamo, the “shoemaker to the stars” who decided to settle in Florence after 13 years of success in America. Ferragamo chose Florence for its beauty as well as to delve into the depths of the specialized crafts that would allow him to achieve his goals of excellence.
Locchi’s historic images also feature private fashion soirees and legendary shows in the Pitti Palace’s Sala Bianca from 1952 to 1982, the brainchild of famous Tuscan-born New York fashion buyer Giovanni Battista Giorgini.
Another section of the show spotlights the great Italian designers who showed their collections in the Sala Bianca, such as Roberto Capucci, Emilio Schuberth, Sorelle Fontana and Simonetta Colonna di Cesarò, in addition to celebrities who helped to put Florence firmly on the fashion map and the special guests who flew in from Paris, like Christian Dior and Elsa Schiaparelli, the foreign aristocracy such as the Duke of Windsor and fated Hollywood stars, from Audrey Hepburn to Paulette Goddard.
Fashion in Florence through the lens of Archivio Foto Locchi
Palazzo Pitti, Andito degli Angiolini, piazza de’ Pitti 1, Florence
From January 9 to March 5, 2017
Tuesday to Sunday, 8.45am-6.50pm
