Fernanda Gattinoni

Life & Legacy

Fernanda Gattinoni (2 December 1906 – 27 November 2002) was an Italian fashion designer who was the founder of the Gattinoni atelier. She left Italy at age 17 and worked as an apprentice for the London-based Molineaux fashion house. Gattinoni returned to Italy in 1930 to become head of the creative department for the Ventura atelier after declining an offer to work for Chanel in Paris. In 1946, she established the Gattinoni atelier and designed costumes for Italian notability and notable foreign figures. Gattinoni earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design with her design of Audrey Hepburn's attire in the 1956 film War and Peace. She was appointed Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in July 1998. A biography on Gattinoni was published in 2010 and a garden in Rome was named after the fashion designer four years later.