Krizia

Mariuccia Mandelli, creator behind Krizia clothing, was born in Bergamo, Italy in 1933. From the early age of 8 she was making dresses for her dolls. She spent a lot of her childhood in a friend's dressmaking shop. She had previously trained as a teacher, and had begun selling skirts and dresses in 1951.  Along with a friend, she decided to rent two rooms in Milan which became her first design studio and workshop. Historically, the name Krizia is used in Plato's discourse on the vanity of women.

In 1954, helped by her husband Aldo Pinto, she formed a company named Kriziamaglia, in Milan, Italy. Her clothes were quite successful and two years later, she included a series of fruit print dresses. In 1964, she showed a striking black and white collection at the Pitti Palace in Florence. She later on branched out into knitwear designs in 1967 and later into complete ranges of ready-to-wear clothes.

Walter Albini decided to work at Krizia from 1960 to 1963 and Aldo Ferrante was also a designer there in the late 1960s.

Krizia's designs are always very distinctive, clever, light-hearted and witty. They manage to retain considerable grace and a lot of glamour. Mandelli says : "there is often a sense of architecture in my clothing - one of my collections was inspired by the Chrysler Building".

In the 1970's Mandelli's signature animal motif began to feature each season on several garments. Krizia has now become a giant of the Milan fashion scene. Over 50 collections a year are created for the various Krizia labels, including menswear, childrens wear, knitwear, glasses, handbags, ties, perfumes, kitchen furniture and a lot more.

Mariucci Mandelli was honoured with the title Commendore of the Italian Republic in 1986.


In the year 2000, the Israeli designer Alber Elbaz, took over as chief designer at Krizia, after leaving YSL Rive Gauche ready-to-wear. However after only one brilliant collection, Elbaz moved towards the House of Lanvin. He was then followed by Belgian designer Jean-Paul Knott, who joined Krizia in November 2001. However in February 2002, he parted from Krizia having only designed two collections.  Mariuccia Mandelli, who is still very much a hands-on designer at her house, brought in English designer Hamish Morrow in order to add some very fresh ideas to the design.
 

Find fashion by Krizia @ the following eshop: