27 Facts About Rosa Genoni

Rosa Genoni was an Italian seamstress, fashion designer, teacher, feminist and advocate for workers' rights.

Rosa Genoni had a successful fashion design career, with innovative designs such as her Tanagra dress.

Rosa Genoni was the Italian delegate at the International Congress of Women, The Hague, Netherlands, 28 April - 10 May 1915.

Rosa Genoni was born in the town of Tirano in Lombardy, about 40 miles from Milan.

Rosa Genoni was the eldest of 19 children, 12 surviving.

Rosa Genoni moved to Milan at ten years old to look for a job, and found one at a relative's dressmaker shop.

Rosa Genoni was a strong advocate for emancipation of women, and for their right to have access to education.

Between 1884 and 1885, Genoni was sent to Paris as a delegate of the Italian Workers' Party, the predecessor to the Italian Socialist Party.

Rosa Genoni remained in Paris and found work in a small Italian seamstress shop.

Rosa Genoni soon moved back to Milan, determined to develop a 'Made in Italy' sensibility and bring awareness to the creative production in her home nation.

The journalist, Anna Maria Mozzoni invited Rosa Genoni to participate in the Socialist-Labourist International Congress in Zurich.

Rosa Genoni was active with other women at the early days of the Lega femminile, which grouped seamstresses and milliners.

At one of the seamstress' protests Rosa Genoni met feminist and socialist leader, Anna Kuliscioff.

Rosa Genoni was promoted to Premiere in 1903, the same year her daughter Fanny was born out of her relationship with her companion, the lawyer Alfredo Podreider, who she met when she was part of the circle of Pietro Gori.

In 1905, Genoni added teaching the history of costume at the Professional School for Women at the Societa Umanitaria in Milan to her job at Maison H Haardt et Fils and to her commitment to activism for peace and women's rights.

Rosa Genoni directed the dress-making department at the Societa Umanitaria, a job she held until 1925, at which time she refused to swear an oath of loyalty to fascism.

At the time of the Milan Expo in 1906, Rosa Genoni was still working as a Premiere at the Milanese branch of Maison Haardt et Fils, mainly reproducing Parisian models.

Ultimately, Rosa Genoni achieved the recognition for her talents as a designer of dresses 'Made in Italy' that she craved: she was awarded the International Jury Grand Prix for two creations that were put on show at the Expo.

Rosa Genoni documented her participation in the Expo in a booklet, Al visitatore.

Rosa Genoni's inspiration came from three distinct periods: early Renaissance, Greco-Roman and classical antiquity, and the modern.

Rosa Genoni incorporated draping, folding, girding and pinning, building in the ability for the wearer to transform her Tanagra dress.

Rosa Genoni was the sole Italian delegate at the Congress and represented a number of Italian suffragist and pacifist organisations.

Rosa Genoni was monitored by the local security forces due to her pacifist activities and involvement in the anti-war campaign.

Rosa Genoni attacked the Futurists' position in favor of the war and wrote plainly about her stance in articles published in a socialist paper, L'Avanti.

Under these circumstances, Rosa Genoni had abandoned her dream of building an "Italian fashion" and a more democratic and egalitarian society that defended the rights of the lower classes.

Rosa Genoni was a keen anthroposophist interested in the spiritual teachings of the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner.

Rosa Genoni introduced the youngest of her siblings, the Italian artist Ernesto Genoni, to the Anthroposophy Society meetings in Milan.