History of Italian fashion century, cheaper silk was imported to Milan from Asia because the phylloxera pest infestation damaged silk and wine produced in Italy. After industrialization, metal, mechanical, and furniture manufacturing replaced textile production. Some of the first modern Italian fashion designers, such as Bulgari, Prada, Gucci, and Ferragamo, were founded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the 1950s and 1960s, Italian fashion regained popularity worldwide. On February 12, 1951, the Italian businessman Giovanni Battista Giorgini held a fashion show in Florence to make Italy an international leader in fashion design. Prior to his "soirées" in 1951 to 1953, Italy
Italian fashion and opening up and setting up their first boutiques and emporia. Until the 1970s, Italian fashion was mainly designed for the rich and famous, more or less like the French ""Haute Couture"". Yet, in the 1970s and 80s, Italian fashion started to concentrate on ready-to-wear clothes, such as coats, jackets, trousers, shirts, jeans, jumpers and miniskirts. Milan became more affordable and stylish for shoppers, and Florence was deposed of its position as the Italian fashion capital and replaced by Rome, which grew in importance as high fashion pole in the country thanks to the creations of Valentino, Fendi, Roberto Capucci,