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.
Piero della Francesca's masterpiece reunited again
In a unique and unrepeatable exhibition, a masterpiece by Piero della Francesca is presented for the first time in history, 555 years after its creation: the Augustinian Polyptych.
Adrian Piper. Adrian Piper and racism in contemporary visual culture traitor
The first European retrospective in over twenty years dedicated to Adrian Piper, conceptual artist, minimalist and performer in the New York art scene of the late Sixties.
150 years after the birth of the Impressionist movement, an exhibition compares the personalities and works of two painters, Paul Cézanne and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who contributed decisively to the fortunes of Impressionism and who influenced future generations of artists.
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 ...