Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, June 22 2022 - The collection of Palazzo Morando | Fashion Costume Immagine is enriched with another piece of fashion history: the gala dress by Roberto Capucci worn by Valentina Cortese on important occasions such as the Prima della Scala in 1989. 
 
“Valentina Cortese's kimono dress – said Roberto Capucci – is a creation from the 1985 collection which was presented at the National Guard Armory in New York. Valentina Cortese, a loyal customer and great friend, purchased the very dress that she showed on the catwalk, since she wanted the original exclusively." 
 
The garment, entirely made with Taroni fabrics, consists of a jacquard silk dress with a moiré bodice and a black skirt with silver-coloured micro polka dots and a kimono-like overcoat in floral jacquard silk with purple and emerald green moiré edges bearing the the back a large stiff bow. The dress was combined with a small rigid fan with oriental-inspired mother-of-pearl inserts. 
To enhance its beauty and elegance, the dress will be exhibited in an exceptional location: the Sala dell'Olimpo of Palazzo Morando, where it will remain until 25 September 2022 (free entry). 
 
The garment was donated by AMICHÆ – Associazione Milano Cultura Heritage Arte Ed Edazione who purchased it in March 2022 at the auction organized by Il Ponte in which the diva's furnishings and wardrobe were put up for sale in favor of the Mario Negri Institute and the Piccolo Teatro of Milan. The association has been alongside Palazzo Morando for some time in the work of increasing, promoting and valorising the heritage. In recent years he has significantly helped the Museum to increase the costume and fashion collections with some items of exceptional value. Consider, for example, the donation in 2019 of three eighteenth-century dresses which, in addition to significantly enriching the collection of eighteenth-century clothes and accessories of the Municipality of Milan with important pieces for the study of the fabric and fashion of the Enlightenment century, allowed Palazzo Morando to create the Settecento! exhibition, which ended on 29 May 2022, already having another one in the pipeline (Moments of fashion. From the bust to the dungarees) which will open in conjunction with the fashion week next September . 
 
This donation is part of the broader program to increase the textile heritage of Palazzo Morando │ Costume Moda Immagine. AMICHÆ's gift is significant not only because it significantly increases the Museum's collection of 20th century dresses with a name of excellence such as Roberto Capucci, but also because it allows the Museum to preserve an important testimony of the actress's life and art Valentina Cortese. 
 
“I am extremely proud of this donation from AMICHÆ to Palazzo Morando, a further piece of this beautiful relationship that has been created between our Association and the museums of Palazzo Morando and Palazzo Moriggia. It is a tangible sign of how much the private sector can do for the public”, says Laura Colnaghi Calissoni, president of the AMICHÆ association.  
 
Roberto Capucci, a great designer of the 20th century, distinguished himself not only in the world of fashion but also in that of television and theater costumes with taste, creativity and eclecticism. He has dressed characters from the world of entertainment, the aristocracy and the international jet set. Always fascinated by the East, Capucci reveals in this dress a profound knowledge of the fashion of the Rising Sun. 
Palazzo Morando preserves some of the designer's clothes dating back to the Sixties and Seventies thanks to the fashion journalist Silvana Bernasconi, who in 2003 wanted to donate her wardrobe to the Municipality of Milan. The garment donated by AMICHÆ therefore continues this tradition of great generosity which allows the Museum to equip itself with an important archive, necessary not only for the periodic rotation of clothes in the exhibition rooms, but also to contribute through loans to the creation of prestigious exhibitions of the history of fashion in Italy and abroad. 
 
Valentina Cortese, whose name for years was synonymous with stardom and glamour, was one of the greatest Italian actresses in Hollywood, Rome, Paris, London and Milan. In your very long career, which began in 1941, you acted with the greatest Italian and international actors and directors; especially three of hers have marked her life and her career: Truffaut, Strehler and Zeffirelli. Her first led to an Oscar nomination with Night Effect; the second, Valentina's teacher and great love, consecrated her in the Milanese theater par excellence, her Piccolo, with The Cherry Orchard. Finally, Zeffirelli, a great friend of hers, directed her in two of her absolute masterpieces, Jesus of Nazareth and Mary Stuart. She passed away three years ago, she was universally recognized as a true diva. Today she is undoubtedly counted as an unforgettable icon of a time which now, through the donation of this dress, will persist in the collective civic memory.