“I was a madwoman who opened a workshop in Via Narone while the bombs were falling…I had inspiration, fancies, the will to do something. Was I to put it all off until after? I am obstinate; I never wait until after!” ~ Jole Veneziani.
While the bombs kept dropping during WWII, Jole Veneziani went on creating sumptuous, colorful and opulent designs that fulfilled her sense of verve, irony, and joy in treating furs as though they were materials. It was Veneziani’s insistence that the color of her furs be in harmony with the color of the dress that compelled one of the best-known Italian fashion journalists, Maria Pezzi, to dub her the “Velvet Paw.” Others called Veneziani “Venus in Furs” or the “Toulouse Lautrec of fashion.”
In 1946, Jole produced a little jacket of moleskin dyed violet; the next year she overlaid a straight skirt with another skirt of rust-colored ermine, making the dress into a frock coat. In 1950, she experimented with unusual mixtures marrying tulle with spotted fur, and by 1956 produced her famous pink, blue and ruby-red fox furs the exact shade of the dress, declaring “color is life, is youth.” In 1957, she continued her chromatic color explorations with a cocoa-colored Persian lamb, ultimately ending the decade with collections including natural-colored furs side-by-side with lilac or melon-yellow mink.
Jole Veneziani was present in Florence when Italian fashion was born there in 1951. Her concentration on bringing *"romantic clothes, full of poetry” to foreign markets cultivated 245 foreign customers for her creations, and led her to become a pioneer in reversing the trend of Haute Couture towards the ready-to-wear market…and ultimately to be considered the “Mother of the Italian Fur Business.”
*quote by the Swiss review Die Frau und ihre welt, 1961: ‘In 1951 already, the American review Vogue stated that Europe had finally discovered that what America lacked was romantic clothes, full of poetry….since then, the Faustian double soul lives in Jole’s bosom: the one that sketches furs and the other that designs clothes.”
View White Stole’s entire collection for size color ranges of Stoles, Stole Wraps, Vintage Stoles, Stole Capes and Shawls for purchase, or rental, on our website.
While the bombs kept dropping during WWII, Jole Veneziani went on creating sumptuous, colorful and opulent designs that fulfilled her sense of verve, irony, and joy in treating furs as though they were materials. It was Veneziani’s insistence that the color of her furs be in harmony with the color of the dress that compelled one of the best-known Italian fashion journalists, Maria Pezzi, to dub her the “Velvet Paw.” Others called Veneziani “Venus in Furs” or the “Toulouse Lautrec of fashion.”
In 1946, Jole produced a little jacket of moleskin dyed violet; the next year she overlaid a straight skirt with another skirt of rust-colored ermine, making the dress into a frock coat. In 1950, she experimented with unusual mixtures marrying tulle with spotted fur, and by 1956 produced her famous pink, blue and ruby-red fox furs the exact shade of the dress, declaring “color is life, is youth.” In 1957, she continued her chromatic color explorations with a cocoa-colored Persian lamb, ultimately ending the decade with collections including natural-colored furs side-by-side with lilac or melon-yellow mink.
Jole Veneziani was present in Florence when Italian fashion was born there in 1951. Her concentration on bringing *"romantic clothes, full of poetry” to foreign markets cultivated 245 foreign customers for her creations, and led her to become a pioneer in reversing the trend of Haute Couture towards the ready-to-wear market…and ultimately to be considered the “Mother of the Italian Fur Business.”
*quote by the Swiss review Die Frau und ihre welt, 1961: ‘In 1951 already, the American review Vogue stated that Europe had finally discovered that what America lacked was romantic clothes, full of poetry….since then, the Faustian double soul lives in Jole’s bosom: the one that sketches furs and the other that designs clothes.”
View White Stole’s entire collection for size color ranges of Stoles, Stole Wraps, Vintage Stoles, Stole Capes and Shawls for purchase, or rental, on our website.
Jole Veneziani Gown with floor-length Stole shown in Milan
Fur-trimmed collar and cuffs on Jole Veneziani coat
Jole Veneziani fur cape photoed in Venice, 1964-5
RSS Feed
