Fashion has the power to re-awaken strong memories: it’s not rare indeed to watch a film or read a novel and find yourself surprisingly crying because a character's hat, shoes, dress or suit remind you of a late family member or a friend.
Italian brand Genny has the same power to re-awaken memories in my generation.
In my personal case Genny is linked to my late teens and me stealing off clothes from my aunt’s wardrobe. One day, while digging in this treasure trove, I found a burnt red shirt with extremely long collars and a delicate shell print. It was simply perfect, it had a slightly militaristic feel in its shape and pockets, but it was also elegant and chic. The label said "Genny".
I wore it every day for years until the fabric simply couldn’t take it anymore, which was fair enough, after all the shirt had lasted for roughly twenty years (a miracle for today’s standards...) and it was worn by two different generations of women who used it to go to work and to go school and then to uni.
The Genny brand was launched in the ‘60s by Arnaldo Girombelli. At the time it mainly produced separates, but it became quickly popular representing the main strengths of Made in Italy products, that is great quality and design and the highest functionality.
In the ‘70s the brand was designed by the then emerging talent Gianni Versace who remained at Genny until the ‘90s. The brand was later on acquired by the Prada Group and then sold it to the Facchini Group.
Genny was relaunched in September, during Milan Fashion Week.
The brand is now designed by Gabriele Colangelo who told me in an interview (more about it later) that Genny was the brand his mother used to wear so it has a special connection with him.
For his Spring/Summer 2012 collection Colangelo worked on a photographic archive since there is not a proper archive of Genny clothes (and that’s a good sign in fashion because it means that consumers wore their purchases a lot).
Inspired by what Colangelo told me, I dug out of my personal archive two adverts from the late ‘70s (from 1976 to be precise) that feature designs by Gianni Versace. The two adverts featured in this post represent a very successful period of time for Made in Italy creations: the campaign was shot in New York and Italian fashion labels and brands were by then successfully exporting their products (in the car bonnet in the second ad there is actually an Alitalia bag - sorry, I've cut it out in this picture - another sign of Italy's strength at the time; nowadays it would be replaced by a Ryanair 50x40x20cm trolley…).
Less than ten years after this campaign was shot, in 1984, Genny became the first Italian house to host a show (directed by Nando Miglio) at the White House on the invitation of President Ronald Reagan and the Princess Grace Foundation.
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