Anton Giulio Grande, portrait of a dreamer

Anton Giulio Grande is a visionary, a dreamer. Beauty has always guided him, always inspired him.

Its roots are founded in the meticulous elegance of a matriarchal family. She was born in a land, Calabria, full of art, culture, wonder and iconic traditions. From bustiers to fringed shawls, from the predominance of black to honeycomb embroidery. Anton Giulio Grande’s collections evoke an ancient feminine elegance.

As a child he watched his mother. Refined of manners and polite gestures. In perpetual balance between the sobriety of a strict upbringing and the measured flair of bon ton. He observed his grandmother, his paternal grandmother. China on the loom and never weary of skillful fingering. She had in her hands the wisdom of the warp and the three-dimensional secrets of those threads that faded into the long bangs. Confident in the ancient Arabic art of macramé.

Anton Giulio Grande’s talent coincides with his dream. Since childhood he investigated female beauty. He imagined designing garments for showgirls on Saturday night TV shows.

As a young man, he distinguished himself in high fashion for important collaborations. She stands out for her style of interpretative research of glamour as an instrument of seduction. 

Her creations, designed to interpret beauty and sensuality, have seduced the very icons of the star system and beyond. Her garments are often featured in cine-television productions.

Fashion is emotion and inspiration. Fashion is evolution, the art of change. It is a journey inside a great invention called passion for one’s work. The happiest of man’s intuitions.

A passion for luxury is combined with the mastery of sartorial experience. Even today her collections come out of the artisan workshops, of the tailors of Calabria.

To wear an AGG dress, a perfect, statuesque physique is not essential. What is essential is the spirit with which one wears it. In her clothes there is the history of feminine evolution, there is the history of fabrics. There is synergy between the feminine character that emphasizes the dress and the character of the dress that emphasizes the feminine grace of the forms.

Mary Baesso, deputy director of BARNES Como, oversees the organization and production of luxury services in the area. Thanks to their trusting relationship, established through years of collaboration, Anton Giulio Grande chose to be interviewed by Mary, for BARNES Como.

Anton Giulio Grande becomes a reference point for BARNES Como, with exclusive services dedicated to our clients.

What are the trends for next summer, what color to wear for a romantic dinner on a terrace by the Lake?

You can use so many colors because the background is unique. I would use delicate colors, for example the color lavender or wisteria, to express and enhance sensuality, femininity, delicacy.

Is it the body that shapes the dress or the dress that shapes the body?

Both. A couturier’s skill is to emphasize the feminine parts thus enhancing and making beautiful every silhouette. The dress can also be a means of communication for the woman. The latter can send messages of seduction and provocation.

What are the trend colors for summer 2022? 

Strong, bright and vivid. Yellow, blue, orange, green. Colors evocative of Gauguin’s Tahitian women’s palettes.

Fashion and film: can you point us to a female icon that sums up both?

Impossible to name just one, because cinema is dotted with icons who have inspired the world of international high fashion.

Rita Hayworth, the first icon that comes to mind. With her we remember the most chaste, elegant, sensual and memorable striptease in film history in the movie Gilda. Hayworth with a few gestures defines a myth that has come down to our time. A black glove paraded with extreme sensuality, a black dress with a wrap-around slit made by costume designer Jean Louis, hands on her head tousling her hair. All this helped consolidate the image of femme fatale in the collective imagination.

Impossible not to mention Audrey Hepburn wearing Givenchy’s black sheath dress in the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s that became iconic! A garment that revolutionized women’s wardrobe. 

I would also like to recall the scene where the skirt of Marlyn Monroe’s dress rises, in the movie When the Wife is on Vacation, because of the air rising from the subway ventilation grate. The skirt opens up like a wheel! The dress worn by Marlyn Monroe is a cocktail dress that reveals the back, with a deep V-neckline in front. 

However, I also want to remember Omar Sharif unforgettable Doctor Zhivago, with his Napoleonic Cossack coat.

For information or to make an appointment at one of AGG’s ateliers, our customers can write to maison@antongiuliogrande.it.