A for "Anni d'oro", the golden years of Italian fashion and hats. As in fairy tales, the decade opens with a ball, orchestrated in 1951 by Giovanni Battista Giorgini at his home in Florence, Villa Torregiani, the perfect setting of dreams come true. The official debut took place in the Sala Bianca of Palazzo Pitti, on July 22, 1952: it was here that the birth of the "Italian fashion system," made up of excellence spread throughout the territory, was celebrated. The winning idea is to mix together garments from the best Italian fashion houses, in which accessories are a fundamental part of the staging. Among the proposals of the first edition are also hats, veils and hairstyles from Gallia e Peter of Milan, an expression of that "Italian fine hands" that, from art, to landscape, is transmitted to craftsmanship and haute couture. There is talk of the "Italian miracle." Years in which, with the help of the cinema, which spreads Italian atmospheres and style throughout the world, the hat plays a leading role, punctuating between informality and elegance the times of modern life: cloches and berets in the morning, cowls, half-moons, and turbans for the late afternoon, and finally toques (pillboxes) with veils, feathers and feathers, flowers and crystals, and jeweled hairstyles for social evenings. "Women without hats? They look like runaways: that's what the milliners and even the seamstresses say. The haute couture dress certainly wants a hat," note the magazines of the time. These are years when "to go out without a hat is to define oneself without style," when headgear naturally shapes and complements the figure, harmonizing it with matching gloves, scarves and collars, or playing with contrast to add a touch of exuberance and class. These are the golden years when "an elegant woman never goes out bareheaded."
