In 1964, while designing Linea Optical, Germana Marucelli asked artist Getulio Alviani to design the decorative patterns for her dresses. The resulting collection was officially presented at the 29th Italian Fashion Event in Florence in January 1965. What set these dresses apart from everything that had come before was the successful match between shape (dress) and sign.
«Static forms have been left behind in favour of constantly changing shapes… an example of high-level collaboration – … with the unity of culture and the interrelation of different disciplines.».
Lara Vinca Masini
In her Autumn/Winter 1968/69 collection, what she termed as her “operative parallelism” with Alviani culminated in the seminal Linea Alluminio. A combination of her stunning foresight and avant-garde artistic practice, the linea Alluminio has often been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide. Whereas in the Linea Optical it is the pattern – hence the sign – that dialogues with the body’s movements to create infinite variations in the dress’s shape, in the Linea Alluminio light is reflected by the “magical metals” strategically placed on the dress to establish its constantly changing structural layout, much like Alviani’s Vibratile Texture Surfaces where “the work changes at the slightest movement of the viewer-actor”. In both cases, a new concept of fashion prevails – one where the wearer is no longer a passive subject given meaning by the dress but becomes an active and even decisive component of the dress itself.
