Sorelle Fontana is a fashion house specialised in haute couture tailoring, founded in Rome in 1943 by the three designer sisters Zoe, Micol and Giovanna Fontana. Thanks to their atelier, the Fontana sisters were the first to breathe life into Made in Italy, helping to make Italian style internationally famous.
In 1949, the American actress Linda Christian commissioned them to design her wedding dress for her wedding to Tyrone Power, an event that attracted international media attention and catapulted the atelier to stardom, thus paving the way for the film market, particularly the Hollywood market. Maria Pia di Savoia also chose the creations of the Fontana sisters for her wedding. Actresses such as Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren, Liz Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, and many others wore their gowns, adding to the maison's global reputation.
The Fontana sisters also dressed first ladies such as Truman, Kennedy, and Eisenhower, and were costume designers for Anita Ekberg in the film La dolce vita and for Alitalia flight attendants. They took part in the historic "First Italian High Fashion Show" organised by Giovanni Battista Giorgini at his private residence in Florence in 1951, heralding a seminal moment for Italian fashion. They were also among the founders of SIAM (Italian Union of Haute Couture), later the National Chamber for Italian Fashion, in 1953.
Some of the Fontana sisters' pieces are exhibited in prestigious museums such as the Metropolitan and the Guggenheim in New York, as well as the Louvre in Paris. Exhibitions on their creations have been held in landmark venues such as the University of Parma, the Hotel Hermitage in Monte Carlo, Castel Sant'Angelo and the Capitoline Museums in Rome. The Centre for Communication Studies and Archives in Parma hosts an extensive collection dedicated to the atelier of the Sorelle Fontana, with over 6,500 items including figurines, sketches and drawings.
The story of the three sisters was told in the TV miniseries Atelier Fontana - Le sorelle della moda, broadcast on Rai 1 in 2011, and repeated in 2014. The series celebrates the everlasting influence of the Fontana sisters in Italian and international fashion, and includes a cameo by Micol Fontana herself.