FONTANA SISTERS

   Three sisters, Zoe, Micol, and Giovanna, began their Italian design business in 1944 in Rome. They were inspired by the 1950s films, and so the leading ladies of Hollywood soon became devoted customers. The sisters' evening dresses, wedding gowns, and film costumes were luxurious and dramatic, thus their appeal to the stars. The American public, hungry to escape into the world created by film, followed the design choices of the stars and socialites who chose the Fontana sisters' designs. The "cassock dress," inspired by ecclesiastical dress, was the sisters most famous and controversial.