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Jorge Alberto Imperatrice, commonly known as Giorgio
Sant'Angelo (May 5, 1933 - August 29, 1989), was an Italian/Argentinian fashion designer based in
the United States. Giorgio was part of The New York Triumvirate of Fashion Designers, which included
Giorgio, Halston and
Calvin Klein. He was known for creating ethnic-inspired looks early in his career, for which he won the prestigious American Coty Fashion Critic's award in 1968 and in 1970. Using fabrics like tie-dyed chiffon, leather and cotton, he created romantic clothing that reflected the hippie culture of the era. But his innovative use of knitwear, which he continuously developed throughout his career, was often his signature and was an influence on other designers.
Sant'Angelo was born as Jorge Alberto Imperatrice in Rosario, Argentina, to a middle class family. Son of Domingo Antonio Imperatrice and Leila Ratti, he had a younger brother, Hector Daniel Imperatrice. Later in life, he said he was born a nobleman in Florence, Italy, the son of a Florentine count.
He received a degree in architecture at the University of Florence, then studied industrial design and ceramics. He also studied with Picasso for six months, as the result of winning an international ceramics competition, sponsored by the French government. Picasso encouraged his student to "trust his own restless creativity and to keep on trying new artistic ventures," and Sant'Angelo created an animated film cartoon and submitted it to Walt Disney. Impressed by the film's inventiveness, Disney brought him to Hollywood and gave him an apprenticeship. But unable to speak English well, Sant'Angelo was lost in the vastness of Los Angeles and quit after 15 days.[1]
Sant'Angelo moved to New York City after his experience at Disney. He first worked as textile artist, and later worked in interior design. For fun, he started making Lucite and plastic jewelry. Catherine Murray di Montezemolo first noticed the jewelry, then later
Diana Vreeland, who started featuring it in Vogue magazine. This set his career into motion. Vreeland recognized the talent that Sant'Angelo showed, and hired him as a freelance stylist. It was out of this collaboration that some of the most iconic fashion photographs of the 1960s were taken. Shots like the model Verushka wrapped in fur in the desert, or psychedelic flower makeup around one of Twiggy's eyes.
Giorgio di Sant' Angelo
negative 1977; print 1978
Robert Mapplethorpe (American, 1946 - 1989)
Released just a few months after the Life article, Sant' Angelo's Fall 1969 collection featured
a group of exuberant designs. According to Dennita Sewell, curator of the Girogio di Sant' Angelo exhibit on view at the Phoenix Art Museum, the Fall 1969 collection featured a diversity of inspirations, including "tango dancers, Gustav Klimt paintings and medieval illuminated manuscripts." The patchwork dress seen here is Sant' Angelo's Klimt dress, named after the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt. The fantastical patchwork garment portrayed in Klimt's famous 1907 painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer was perhaps the inspiration for Sant' Angelo's flowing, gold-trimmed patchwork dress. This particular Sant' Angelo dress is well documented, appearing in advertisements and a 1969 Vogue editorial shot by Irving Penn. In the Vogue spread, the dress was perhaps overshadowed by its model, Naomi Sims. Having only begun modelling two years previously, Sims had already appeared on the cover of the New York Times fashion supplement (8/1967) and the Ladies Home Journal (10/1968) and would soon appear on the cover of Life (10/1/1969). Sims is often labelled the first black supermodel, paving the way for others including Pat Cleveland and Beverly Johnson. For his runway presentations, Sant' Angelo often hired Sims, Cleveland or other black models. Sant' Angelo's hiring practices reflected the impact of the Black is Beautiful movement in the United States and highlighted shifting notions of beauty in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
This asymmetrical dress in electric purple silk charmeuse embraces the drama, glamour, and fantasy of the disco scene. The shimmering, swaying textile would have reflected light like a disco ball. Flying panels and a flowing sleeve give the dress a sense of freedom that was perfectly in tune with the Me Decade. Sant'Angelo "had this amazing way of creating volume," remembers Inacio Ribeiro, of the British label Clements Ribeiro. He abandoned zippers in favor of clinging or billowing textiles that moved with the body. An acclaimed swimwear designer, he was comfortable working with stretch fabrics, which were just beginning to move into the everyday female wardrobe. These comfortable, form-fitting garments were ideal for modern, working women. Discos like Studio 54 were magnets for the fashion world, attracting designers, models, and celebrities, including Sant'Angelo clients Diana Ross, Cher, and Bianca Jagger. Sant'Angelo's chief rivals, Halston and Calvin Klein, became known for their nightlives as much as their day jobs. Whether or not you intended to dance, there was no better place to see and be seen.
In designing the flower printed dress pictured here, Sant' Angelo looked to European art history, specifically, the 15th century Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. In Botticelli's allegorical painting La Primavera (1477-82), Flora, the goddess of flowers and a symbol of spring, wears a flower-patterned dress trimmed with leaves and flowers. A floral crown decorates her flowing blond hair. Barefoot and staring at the viewer, she tosses flowers before her as she walks through the forest. Sant' Angelo's dress uses inset bias panels, a ruffled lettuce hem and dimensional floral embellishment to create an Age of Aquarius tribute to Botticelli's Renaissance Flora. Sant' Angelo's dress also makes a cultural connection between these two distinct eras—both the Age of Aquarius and the Renaissance were considered the dawn of a new age and a new culture.
Sant'Angelo opened his own ready-to-wear business in 1966. He experimented with knits, and developed new fabrications with textile mills like DuPont. He also collaborated with textile converters like Crantex, to create his own prints, and leather makers like Calderon, for his accessories. He cited various native and ethnic cultures as the inspiration for his collections, like the American Indian or the Bohemian Gypsy. But his most important contribution to modern women's clothing at the time was his liberating construction techniques and his use of stretch fabrics. He rejected the traditional shift with the zipper-up-the-back, and instead, designed clothing that wrapped, tied, hung or clung to the body. He didn't simply design clothes, he ornamented the body and made fantasy wearable. He made couture pieces for celebrities and entertainers as well. Eventually, he started to license his name and expand into cheaper, more affordable clothing. The first line was called Sant'Angelo 4U2, which were less expensive versions of his fantasy pieces. Then there was the 'Marjer Parts' line, which was also more affordable, but more trend-influenced. Later, he dropped the 'di' from his last name and licensed out his name as Giorgio Sant'Angelo. Unfortunately, much of that clothing did not have his own hand involved, and instead, was overly commercial and did not possess his innovative signature. In 1976, Sant'Angelo befriended guitarist Michael Laucke, whom he met through jewelry designer, philanthropist and former fashion model Elsa Peretti, and Sant'Angelo frequently hired Laucke to play at the launching of his new lines in New York, setting "the pace for a more subdued Sant'Angelo".[2][3]
In the mid-1980s, Sant'Angelo added the "di" back to his last name and continued to design his high end signature line. Made almost entirely out of stretch knits, critics hailed it, confirming the return of his influence. The versatile, wrap stretch pieces of clothing, in unique materials, colors and patterns, proved an antidote to the overly tailored styles of the time. Unfortunately, di Sant'Angelo died of lung cancer in 1989,[4] so his comeback was short-lived. But his legend continues in the minds of modern-day fashionistas, with designers like
John Galliano and
Marc Jacobs citing him as an influence. He was given a plaque on the 7th Avenue walk of fame along with his contemporaries such as Halston and Stephen Burrows.
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