“You will learn at your expense that along the journey of life, you will meet many masks, and very few faces”.
(Luigi Pirandello)
A face: Roberto Guarducci
(Once upon a time …)
“Here is your cabin!” indicated the controller.
The train Intercity No. 7213 Bari – Milan departed at 23:00 perfectly on time, the arrival was scheduled for next day at 9:15.
“Roberto, please help me put the suitcase in the luggage rack” asked Aurora. He complied quickly.
They lay down in their respective bunks in the hope of falling asleep quickly.
“Rest,” he said. “The trip is long and a busy day awaits us tomorrow!” Aurora sipped a little water from the bottle kindly offered by Roberto and, lulled by the repetitive noise of the train running, she fell asleep.
This was not the case for him. Thousands of thoughts buzzed in his head.
“Will I be up to it?” “How will this unknown world greet me?”
Fortunately, he was not alone, he looked at the face sleeping peacefully beside him. Nobody could support him better than her and advise him on this wonderful adventure. Finally, he finally fell asleep.
At a quarter-past seven in the morning, a waiter with a cart and a bell woke them up with coffee and croissants. Roberto leaned out of the window; they had arrived at Piacenza. The smell of coffee he sipped mingled with the smell of the rails.
They arrived at Milan Central Station on time.
They went to the exit where Mr. Luigi Monti, owner of the company Basil, held a sign indicating “Sig. Guarducci “.
“Welcome madam – sir!”
They greeted each other warmly and were then taken to the hotel to cool off, setting an appointment for 2 PM.
Mr. Monti was punctual. As the car drove through the doors of Basil House, Roberto and Aurora were seized with great emotion. For the first time, a mother and a son had found themselves confronted to a unique experience.
Thus began the adventure of the young Roberto Guarducci, who soon became the famous stylist of the Fendi fashion house.
A little over a year later, thanks to his remarkable qualities, he was called to Rome by the important fashion house. He would work closely with the five Fendi sisters and the famous designer Karl Lagerfeld for twenty-two years.
The sense of aesthetics, refinement and elegance innate in him, allow him to make a great contribution to the world of fashion of those years.
He dressed great international top models such as Naomi Campell, Linda Evangelista, Cristie Tarlington, Clarissa Burt, Claire Aktinson, Ines de la Fresange, Dalma Callado, Yasmine Gaudi, Lee Skelton, Iman, Munia.
The collaboration with famous costume designer Piero Tosi, friend of the Fendi sisters and collaborator of Luchino Visconti and many other Italian directors, is also important.
He was very popular in the world of cinema, thanks to the clothes recreated for certain films, such as “La Traviata” by Zeffirelli, “Family group in an interior” of Visconti.
The great passion and professionalism acquired over the years has led him to follow important events for young designers as artistic director.
He is credited with a prestigious event that now comes to his sixth edition: “The Magic of the Muses” (La Magia delle Muse) and the most recent “The Magic of the Mermaids”, for which he returns for the second year in collaboration with Patrizia Ventura and Salvatore Leone.
Only a unique personality like Roberto Guarducci, a lover of beauty, elegance and refinement could conceive of such events.
The Circolo Unione del Teatro Petruzzelli and Circolo Unione Torre a Mare in Bari are the ideal settings for this expression of creativity. It is no coincidence that these events were sponsored by the Academy of Belle Arti in Bari, Federmoda, the municipality of Bari and the metropolis of Bari and have benefited from the participation of renowned stylists with their most important collections : Gianni Molaro, Franco Ciambella, Nino Lettieri, Carlo Alberto Terranova, Claudia Perdicchia, the SITAM Lecce Fashion Academy, Nadia Orlando and finally Antonio Extempore, to name a few.
Roberto Guarducci likes to surround himself not only with beauty but also with those who exalt him, such as hairdressers Tonino and Anna Scarpati, Michele Palmisano and makeup artist Maria Teresa Mileo.
In his latest edition, he wanted to unite fashion and culture by inviting writer Lella Di Marino with his new novel inspired by the life of the stylist Gianni Molaro “Un amore diverso” (a different love), published by Mondadori. On this occasion, Pierpaolo Ruello, who has presented for years the Prix Troisi of the “Salina Mare Festival“, paid tribute to him for his previous participation in the Festival, by offering him a watercolor representing a Sicilian puppet of the famous artist Salvo Currò.
I was also present at this event with my blog “menover50mode“. It was a great honor for me to be able to speak to such an important audience.
I’d like to conclude this article with these words of esteem, affection and love:
“To meet Roberto, to talk to him, means to make a trip in the Italian genius. Fashion is an art, especially in sewing and feel his breath through his voice is pure pleasure.
Roberto Guarducci is creativity, discipline, technique, nostalgia. A dip in the palette of colors and memories of a rising Italy of the 80s / 90s, a focus on atmospheres made of dreams and aspirations. We would spend hours and hours listening to it, discovering anecdotes and secrets of a profession that, for many, is only needle and thread but it is rather a question of sacrifice, of commitment, of
study. The devil wears Guarducci: it goes without saying! “
Pierpaolo Ruello
Roberto’s eyes know the love, the love that only a mother can give, and it is to this mother that I want to dedicate these verses.
For you Aurora
I see you sweet, persuasive with a laughing look.
You are dawn.
Small, thin even in a jute dress, you exhaled elegance.
How many memories!
Among the fabrics, the lace, the feathers and the beauty you were at my side.
You were, you are and you will always be there.
Because where there is elegance, there is beauty,
where there is beauty, there is love,
where there is love, you are there … mom!
You were, you are and you will always be there.
Lella Di Marino
Referring to Luigi Pirandello‘s early quote, from the famous book “One, No One and One Hundred Thousand,” Roberto is for me a “face” that, fortunately, I knew about three years ago. He has a strong personality, but is very sensitive, caring and determined at the same time. To believe in himself, in all that he has done and continues to do, is his greatest strength. He was also able to draw strength from the difficulties encountered by reacting with determination, perseverance and obstinacy, bringing light even where the tunnel was dark.
In recent years, he became a friend, sometimes a counselor who could help me say what I think, always put myself at stake and specially to stay myself.
To know Roberto is a privilege. Thanks to his creations and his person, you learn to recognize beauty and to live it. I feel privileged.
Thank you Roberto!
