Emilio Schuberth was the tailor of the Dolce Vita. The couturier who, in the 1950s and 1960s, dressed the most iconic divas and glamorous women in history in his atelier in Rome, from Evita Perón to Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren, and the sensual Abbe Lane. The house is back in the spotlight thanks to the passion and foresight of a Neapolitan entrepreneur passionate about the brand, who acquired it in 2007 from the couturier’s heirs, his daughters Gretel and Annalise : Elena Perrella, former commissioner of the Mondragone Foundation in Naples from 2000 to 2006.
Schuberth’s return to the catwalk is scheduled for February 6th in Rome , as part of the second edition of Roma Couture, an event organized by Grazia Marino and Antonio Falanga ‘s Spazio Margutta. For this occasion, Elena Perrella, the brand’s art director, will revive the maison’s unmistakable style with a show of ten haute couture creations in gold, silver, black, blue, and yellow.
The fashion show will be dedicated to Sophia Loren and all the women around the world who suffer because of war. Loren’s iconic image from the film “Two Women” will become a symbol of strength and hope, an invitation to rediscover beauty as a driver of change.
“We want to be pioneers of a new vision of fashion. The world has changed,” explains Elena Perrella, “and we have changed with it. We therefore celebrate the centrality of the human being without forgetting the importance of digitalization.” With this in mind, the fashion house is launching its new website, with an interactive experience that combines tradition and technology. Furthermore, the Emilio Schuberth Digital Museum will soon be inaugurated, a project that will allow visitors to explore the history and future of the brand through an immersive journey.
On the catwalk, in addition to fashion, the art of perfumery will also be celebrated, with the presentation of three new Schuberth fragrances: Schu, Taffetas and Coquillage.
BIOGRAPHY
Born to a Habsburg father , Gotthelf Schuberth, and a Neapolitan mother, Fortuna Vittozzi , his full name was Emilio Federico Schuberth. He was a great couturier beloved by international stars, thus dubbed the “tailor of the stars.” He dressed Princess Soraya, Rita Hayworth, Ingrid Bergman, Bette Davis, Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, and Anna Magnani. He achieved success thanks to his innate artistic and showmanship sense, as well as a profound knowledge of tailoring inherited from the Neapolitan school. Around the 1930s, Schubert moved to Rome and began working at the Montorsi atelier, where he demonstrated a remarkable mastery of combining silk and lace for linens.
Later, in 1938, he decided to go into business for himself and opened his first shop on Via Frattina with his wife. Inundated with countless requests from customers, after just two years he opened a haute couture atelier on Via Lazio, only to move again to Via XX Settembre less than a year later. His style was elegant and refined. He loved luxurious fabrics and skillful combinations of materials. With a slim bust and broad shoulders, his dresses, a synthesis of nineteenth-century and Hollywood pomp, attracted the attention of major movie stars and noble royalty: Maria Pia of Savoy quickly commissioned the Neapolitan tailor to create part of her wedding trousseau, while King Farouk of Egypt chose him to dress his entire harem of wives and lovers. In 1949, during the Venice Film Festival, Schubert showed at Palazzo Grassi.
Emilio Schubert had understood that communication was fundamental in his work and at every social event he did not fail to stage, with a histrionic manner, his appearances, accompanying himself with twelve glittering models and showing off expensive jewels which he used in particular to attract the attention of the media.
He was one of the protagonists of the nascent Italian fashion. He took part in the historic First Italian High Fashion Show organized by Giovanni Battista Giorgini at his private residence in Florence, Villa Torrigiani. The show was held on February 12, 1951, in the presence of six important American buyers. In 1953, together with other leading names of the time, including the Fontana Sisters, Alberto Fabiani, Vincenzo Ferdinandi, Jole Veneziani, Giovannelli-Sciarra, Mingolini-Gugenheim, Eleonora Garnett, and Simonetta, he helped found the Fashion Syndicate, which later became the National Chamber of Italian Fashion.
His extravagant and dreamlike style peaked in the 1960s. Many consider him a fashion revolutionary, the one who invented the spectacularization of fashion and transformed the role of the virtually invisible “tailor” into the figure of the “stylist” today. An undisputed master of Italian fashion, he also created his own perfume, which he ironically called Schu-schu.
Schuberth was also a histrionic character, as well as a famous tailor whose students included Valentino Garavani . On television, he played himself in a film and participated in the highly popular television program Il Musichiere , not only as a costume designer but also as a singer. Also on television, in 1957 he participated in a series of sketches for the television advertising program Carosello , advertising the Gran Senior brandy from the Fabbri distilleries together with Erminio Spalla, Sylva Koscina, Dawn Addams, Luciana Peverelli, Nilla Pizzi, Sandra Milo, Isa Barzizza, and Virna Lisi. He died in Rome on January 4, 1972.
