Giacomo Puccini called her “Bicchi” and, in time, everybody called her Biki, thanks to the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, who transformed her childhood nickname into something exotic. “I’m just a seamstress,” Elvira Leonardi Bouyeure once said, the inventor of the “Made in Italy” label, stylist to Maria Callas, Sofia Loren and Brigitte Bardot. Her golden childhood was marked by the influence of huge cultural giants on her upbringing. Characters like Giacomo Puccini, to her “Nonno Tato”, her grandmother’s second husband. When she met, in Paris, art collector Robert Boyeure, her future husband, Biki came into contact with the fashion world and was immediately bewitched. Her constant contact with this world, after one voyage to Paris after another, gave her the idea of turning her natural fashion sense into a creative vocation. Thus, in 1934, she opened her first atelier. At her Milanese studio at Via Senato 8, the first styles inspired by Parisian fashion began to appear, designed and manufactured by Gina Cicogna and Biki, who quickly became convinced that their creations were destined to dress women everywhere. The combination of colours (eccentric for the time), such as blue and green, soon became a trademark of her unmistakable style.
The unconventional approach to the world of luxury of the D&G duo in an elegant, fun and eclectic journey to rediscover the history of one of the most celebrated brands in the Milanese fashion world.
Picasso did not consider the art that inspired him, which moved his creative mind in an unstoppable desire to open new paths, as "primitive", he did not see a "before" and an "after" in art, there was no "other", "different" art: Picasso conceived it as a timeless Whole.
Bulgari Debuts Summer Collection at Milan Fashion Week
Summer fashion in our sights. Milan Fashion Week saw the debut of Bulgari's summer Leather Goods & Accessories collection at the Bulgari boutique, as well as ...
For the first time, Palazzo Reale celebrates the talent of Giuseppe De Nittis in a monographic exhibition by exhibiting around 90 paintings, including oils and pastels, from the main public and private collections, both Italian and foreign.