Milan, from December 5 2007 to January 20 2008
Museum of Contemporary History, via Sant’Andrea, Milan
 
Thirty years after Maria Callas’ death, Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana in collaboration with the Municipality of Milan – Councillorship for Tourism, Territorial Marketing, Identity – organized the extraordinary event exhibition DIVINA! MARIA CALLAS BETWEEN FASHION AND MYTH  to celebrate the myth, elegance and beauty of Maria Callas.  This unique initiative, from  an idea of the Mayor Letizia Moratti, is meant to be a tribute of  Milan and the Italian creativity to the greatest soprano of all times,  whose myth rose and established itself in this very city. The Exhibition was organized at the Museum of Contemporary History, via Sant’Andrea 6, and was inaugurated on December 5 2007 at 6.30 p.m. in the presence of  Cav.Lav. Mario Boselli, City Councillor Massimiliano Orsatti, Director Giulia Pirovano, fashion designers, journalists, PR’s and a delegation of about 200 journalists of the travel press. A cocktail party and a special flower arrangement had been prepared in the halls and central court of the museum for the inauguration evening.
The glamour, elegance and style of the Divina, were interpreted with a contemporary approach by 23 clothes designed by the most eminent protagonists of Italian fashion:
 
ANTONIO MARRAS, BLUMARINE, EMILIO PUCCI, ENRICO COVERI, ETRO, GATTINONI, GIANNI VERSACE, GUCCI, GIANFRANCO FERRE, ICEBERG, JOHN RICHMOND, KRIZIA, LA PERLA , LAURA BIAGIOTTI, LORENZO RIVA, MARIELLA BURANI, MISSONI, MOSCHINO, PRADA, RAFFAELLA CURIEL, ROBERTO CAVALLI, TRUSSARDI AND VALENTINO.

The Exhibition was financed by the Municipality of Milan –  Councillorship for Tourism.

The Exhibition “Expressions of Style on the theme of the Italian flag” was launched two years ago with the idea of linking the creativity and style of our fashion designers to a strongly symbolic and evocative object. Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana has conceived and realized this exhibition in order to have Italian fashion designers explore new ways and enter unusual territories thus creating new experiments and opening up new horizons.
Fashion is not only a matter of costume, but also a cultural and social phenomenon and the synergies between art, culture and fashion are increasingly successful.
 
The Italian fashion designers who have contributed in a crucial way to promote Italian fashion in the world, making our country a great country, have become the most significant interpreters of our Tricolour Flag. Every designer has been invited to take a needle and thread in order to “dress” and interpret the Tricolour according to his/her style, brand identity and sensitivity. Our designers have enthusiastically taken up this challenge trying to glamourize the symbol of the Italian Republic. The result is the Tricolour changed into an object having all the features of a unique work of art. The flags as a whole have composed a unique and rare exhibition  representing a historical and cultural heritage of great value.
The exhibition was presented for the first time at:
 
•        Milano Moda Donna in February 2004, during the Milan fashion week and was met with great praise by the trade press..
Later many other countries asked for the exhibition:
•        London, from September 6 to October 30 2004 at Harrods’
•        Japan, from January 9 to 22 2005 at the Tokyo Dome and from March 25 to September 25 2005 at the Aichi World Expo in Japan
•        Hamburg, November 3  to 20 2005 at the Levantehaus
•        Slovakia, in Bratislava June 1 to 21 2006 at the Zichy Palace
 
In 2007 the Exhibition was presented in two more counties:
 
•        Instanbul – Turkey, June1 to 30 2007 at the Consulate General
•        Sochi – Russia – in December 2007 in the foyer of the Winter Theatre of the main theatre in Sochi.
•        Moscow  - in March 2008 at the Gum department store on the Red Square
 
Presently, the exhibition features 20 flags created by the following fashion designers: Anna Molinari, Alviero Martini, Alessandro De Benedetti, Emilio Pucci, Enrico Coveri, Erreuno, Etro, Gai Mattiolo, Gattinoni, Iceberg, Laura Biagiotti,  Mariella Burani, Max Mara, Missoni, Rocco Barocco, Debora Sinibaldi, Roberto Cavalli, Salvatore Ferragamo, Trussardi.