………………I started going to Florence, Italy to design my sweater collections when I was 21 years old, and designing for my very first design position at “GIORGINI”…..I continued going to Florence from then in 1970, and right through the 20 years I designed at Anne Klein which ended in 1993….so you could say I grew up in Florence. I knew Florence like the back of my hand, and my first Florentine friends were college students my age…..We had a great time, and almost got arrested on the Ponte de Vecchio one evening for drinking bottles of wine and carrying on, but when the police found out I was an “Americano” they left us alone and told us to leave…I guess it was too much trouble , and too much paper work to arrest an American…..We went on to one of their apartments in Santa Croce where we continued to party until the sun came up…..I worked with a wonderful woman named Giovanna Pestelli Ciampini who’s office was in the heart of the city near the Arno River, and across the street from Ferragamo, and down the block from Gucci and Armani…..The very old building, that housed the French consulate, was right in front of an ancient obelisk in the square… It was so exciting! It was because of Giovanna that I went to Florence. On one of her trips to NY I met her at a cocktail party given by my boss, Alan Duddle at his beautiful apartment on Sutton Place. She convinced Alan that it would be better for me to come to Italy and work directly with the sweater factories, and he said YES. When Giovanna left NY to go back to Italy I went with her! Beginning with that trip I continued going to Florence 4 to 5 times a year working with her until I left AK in 1993. She is like a sister to me, and we are still very close. I spent many an evening at her villa in the hills overlooking Florence….with her husband Marcello and their two little boys, Lorenzo and Leonardo….eating the most delicious food…until I would burst! She also lived with her wonderful parents Enzo and Gina….On each visit Giovanna would give me a bottle of Olive oil from the olive orchards on her property….or a bottle of Limoncello, again made from the many lemon trees that grew on the property…..I learned everything I know about every detail of designing sweaters from Giovanna and the factories I worked with. We drove all over Italy visiting the different factories who would be making the sweaters. They all specialized it different types of sweaters, and they all had specialized machinery…..The sketches above were done in Giovanna’s office, and I made the “speck” sheets with all of the necessary measurements and details……It was an invaluable education….ON THE JOB TRAINING! I couldn’t speak much Italian, but I knew all of the lingo when it came to knitwear!….and Marcello taught me all of “THE DIRTY WORDS!….Giovanna would exclaim…”MARCELLO what are you teaching Luigino!”….When I went on to do my Linea collection for QVC, I still designed the knitwear and did the speck measurements for the first samples…Unfortunately, I could no longer work with Giovanna, because the prices out of Italy were too expensive for my QVC line…..What I learned was incredible!………KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!……………I think I will send Giovanna an email to see how she and the family are doing!
