Shakespeare wrote that "you can't gild the lily" because it's perfect as it is. The real beauty has, in fact, need any artifice to shine even more. Yet all this does not apply when it comes to instill a whole new beauty embroidery to something already valuable to her, such as lace, silk and chiffon, enhancing the natural beauty of something amazing but inanimate. Embroider is like writing with a needle verses on fabric, chasing the dream of a sign that point after point becomes design, color, magic. That was the mission of Ersilia Savina refined craftsmanship that witnessed the birth of the Racing great postwar Italian haute couture, becoming in short one of the main protagonists because she knew how to gild the lily, through extraordinary embroidery done for the most important italian fashion house as Capucci, Lancetti, Balestra, Galitzine and Rocco Barocco, just to name a few. This extraordinary embroiderer, for the first time in Italy, where it is imposing the concept of fashion and crafts like culture and art and not more like habit, is dedicated the first book on embroidery preserved in a State Archives as national heritage.
The title is "Il Ricamo Fantasia nell'Alta Moda Italiana. Arte e Mestiere”"by Ersilia Savina Rodante, curated by Anna Maria Rodante Sabatini and Paola Tedeschi Evangelisti. Published by the publishing house Quattroemme in Perugia, is an important example of italian sartorial tradition, with listed 485 embroidery samples made by Mrs Rodante in almost half a century of activity, starting from the early Fifties until the late 1990s.
Ersilia Savina Rodante has partnered with the leading ateliers of the Eternal City and the most famous film and television costumiers, realizing immense and valuable masterpiece absolutely timeless: just look at her fabulous hand embroidery, authentic works of art, the result of hours and hours of work, passion and concentration, and the unbeatable savoir faire. Embroidery artist it rarely rises to the headlines: you tend to admire the dress on the catwalk and for sale giving much of the credit only the fashion designer. But behind the curtain hiding workshop of precious hands that make possible the magic of the great High Fashion. Without them the true haute couture would disappear.
This book is unique and precious: it's is the first of its kind in Italy to be preserved in an Archive, to Perugia, thanks to the daughter of this extraordinary artist. Sensing the artistic range of embroidery in the history of italian fashion, she wanted to save ita from oblivion the time allowing access to an extraordinary catalogue of sublime dreams on fabric in a space institutionally devoted to memory so that it can inspire new generations of creatives
