Laurels for Laura

There’s a reason for Laura Biagiotti’s  popularity among the Chinese. As far back as the early ’80s, she already had set her sights on invading China with her fashion sense. At that time, Chinese ladies were just getting rid of their black Mao pajamas and Biagiotti knew that it was just a matter of time before they took on the fashion of the Western world. In 1988, she presented her collection in Beijing, making her the first Italian fashion designer to ever put up a fashion house in China. 

On my second day in Rome, my hostess Vickie Kan, a personal friend of Laura’s daughter Lavinia Biagiotti, brought me to a private showing of the fall/winter collection of the House of Biagiotti.

Lavinia shared that her mother was given the Marco Polo award by the Chinese government for promoting fashion in China.  In Italy, the Italian government issued a stamp in 2002 with Laura Biagiotti’s name on it and gave her the Leonardo Prize for her contribution to Italian fashion.

When Laura B. was young, she assisted her mother in her dressmaking business. Mother Delia Biagiotti designed the uniforms of Alitalia Airlines in 1964 and was sewing for top designers like Barocco, Schuberth, Capucci and others.  But Laura had dreams beyond just being her mother’s assistant. She wanted to be a big name in Italian fashion and it was not long before she convinced Italian designer Angelo Tarlazzi to allow her to design his women’ s line. With the success of that, she had the courage to put up her own fashion house under her own name.

Biagiotti’s clients love her clothes for their comfort. Her pants have elasticized waists and many of her clothes are elegantly loose fitting. This season, Biagiotti has loose sweater dresses in bright colors. Fuchsia, red, white, violet, and magenta are predominant in hercollection.

In 1994, Biagiotti added another feather to her cap: she staged a fashion show at the Kremlin, and the Russians gave her a standing ovation.  Her boutique in Moscow is very popular among Russia’s new affluent capitalist society.

Lavinia Biagiotti knows that one day she will have to fill her mother Laura’s shoes, but for the moment, she is taking everything in stride and enjoying every moment  of their successful mother-daughter partnership.