An Italian haute couture house, which formed a joint venture with Chinese luxury management company Redstone, recently unveiled its history with an exhibition. Sun Yuanqing reports in Milan.

It is hard to find a family brand with more than 100 years of history, and even harder to put that history into a four-hour exhibition.

Curiel, an Italian haute couture house, recently show-cased its four-generation history with an exhibition, Curiel - History and Future, at Milan Fashion Week.

Based on the theme "knowing what has been to discover what will be", the exhibition traces the history of the brand and sheds light on its future.

The exhibition took visitors back to the 1950s and '60s, when Curiel couture dresses were a fixture at La Scala's premieres and other Italian high society gatherings.

The "Art" space highlights works inspired by artists like Jim Dine, Picasso and Klimt, while the "Exoticism" section presents dresses influenced by Asia and Africa.

The "Curiellino" part reinterprets the brand's classic black dresses in a more contemporary way.

The exhibition is not just about one brand, but a show-case of the history of fashion in Italy, says Giuseppe Silvestrin, director of the exhibition and veteran fashion event organizer.

"It (the exhibition) is not just about seeing the dresses, but how they changed over time in my country. It's like swimming in the history of made in Italy," he says.

This legacy will soon be available to a wider international audience. Curiel and Chinese luxury management company Redstone formed a joint venture in May.

The Curiel family will super-vise the heritage and style of the brand, while Redstone, as the major shareholder, will provide its luxury management expertise and financial muscle to take it global.

Zhao Yizheng, founder and president of Redstone, describes the experience as "having found a diamond in a mountain", and says it is now his duty to "cut it, polish it and make it shine".

Zhao's business model is to seek out small and medium-sized Italian brands and to develop them in China and then take them global.

He has tasted success with Giada, an emerging Italian luxury womens wear brand that now has 59 stores in China and a flagship store on Via Montenapoleone in Milan's central luxury shopping area.

The first Curiel show room is to open in Milan by the end of this year. And the first flagship store will open in Shanghai early next year. This will be fol-lowed by locations in New York, Paris and London.

Curiel was founded by Ortensia Curiel in Trieste in northeastern Italy in the late 19th century, and her niece Gigliola Curiel took the brand to Milan in 1945.

Gigliola's elegant and classic designs then became the go-to choice for Italian high society, and Gigliola also became the first Italian designer to grant exclusivity to both Bergdorf & Goodman in New York and Harrods in London.

Raffaella Curiel, the daughter of Gigliola Curiel, joined the family business in 1961, and then began running the business from her atelier in Corso Matteotti.

She was later joined by her daughter Gigliola Curiel, who is named after her grandmother.

While the brand is secretive about its client list, it is said that US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was once tempted by it although she had to turn to American designers later as then first lady when her husband Bill Clinton entered the White House.

More than 1,000 guests and clients visited the exhibition, including Lamberto Dini, the former Italian prime minister; Beppe Modenese, the honorary chairman of the Italian Chamber of Fashion and Mario Boselli, the former president of the Italian Fashion Chamber.

Fiorenza Locatelli, a long-time client, says her family has been wearing Curiel since her grandmother's time.

"Curiel is for both young and old. It is something you can wear now and in many years' time," she says.

One of her orders was for a chiffon dress decorated with flowers, which she wore to the wedding of the Prince of Monaco last year.

As for Zhao, he is going to take the essence of the brand's haute couture and expand it to five lines, including haute couture, demi-couture, a ready-to-wear line of evening dresses and wedding gowns, and the Curiellino line that specializes in little black dresses.

There will also be a Curiel Baby line.

"We want to show the essence and history of the brand through this exhibition and to share the heritage of Italian fashion with the world," he says.

Contact the writer at sunyuanqing@chinadaily.com.cn

Italian haute couture house Curiel shows its fourgeneration history with the exhibition Curiel - History and Future at Milan Fashion Week in September. Photos Provided To China Daily

Curiel couture dresses were a fixture at high society events in Italy in 1950s and '60s.

(From left to right) Gigliola Curiel, Zhao Yizheng and Raffaella Curiel at the Milan event. Zhao's company has a tie up with the Curiels.

(China Daily 10/28/2016 page18)