Rosa Genoni (1867–1954)

Rosa Genoni (Tirano, 1867 - Varese, 1954) was an Italian fashion designer, anti-war activist and socialist journalist. A seamstress, journalist, teacher at the Humane Society of Milan and feminist before its time before becoming a sort of heroine of the emerging Italian fashions she had long worked as the head of one of the most famous fashion houses in Milan, H.Haardt et Fils, where, according to the norms of the time, worked exclusively French models, faithful reproduction of sketches stolen or bought at a high price in the most famous Parisian atelier of the time such as Paquin, Chéruit, Charles Frederick Worth, Doucet, Callot etc. For the International Exhibition of Milan in 1906, she proposed clothing of great value to the tradition of painting inspired by Italian Renaissance. For her creations Genoni used only Italian fabrics and declared, "our artistic heritage could serve as a model for new forms of clothes and hairstyles." Rosa Genoni that, in 1906 for the International Exhibition of Milan, presented a collection of models inspired by the paintings of medieval and Renaissance, winning the Grand Jury Prize.