Sarmi’s Genius. A new exhibition at the Museum of Costume and Fashion

A first-of-its-kind exhibition dedicated to the great, New York-based Italian couturier who designed splendid gowns for the leading film stars between the 1950s and 1960s, including Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, and Barbra Streisand. 

Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, Barbra Streisand, the Duchess of Windsor. During the golden years of Fifth Avenue, the 20th century’s most famous women placed their look in the hands of Ferdinando Sarmi, a fashion designer who succeeded in giving American high society a touch of Italian flair. 

From 18 June to 31 December 2026, the Museum of Costume and Fashion at Palazzo Pitti will celebrate the designer with the exhibition Ferdinando Sarmi New York – Un viaggio nella moda da Firenze alla Fifth Avenue (“Ferdinando Sarmi New York – A journey in fashion from Florence to Fifth Avenue”), staged in the ballroom and adjacent rooms. 

The exhibition, the first of its kind, displays a selection of the designer’s iconic gowns, placed alongside items from the Fondo Sarmi holding at the Museum of Costume and Fashion as well as period accessories that recreate the cultural and worldly climate of New York of the 1950s and 1960s. 

Born in Ravenna and a holder of a law degree, Ferdinando Sarmi belonged to a family of the Italian nobility. In 1951, Maison Fabiani included his efforts in the historic runway show organized by Giovanni Battista Giorgini in the Giardino Torrigiani villa in Florence – an event that would launch “Made in Italy” abroad.

On that occasion, he caught the eye of Elizabeth Arden, the absolute leader in the American cosmetics industry, who wanted him in New York to head up the Arden fashion line. In 1958, after years working alongside the entrepreneur, he founded his own brand, “Sarmi New York,” and soon became one of the most renowned names in American high fashion. 

The Florentine designer dressed some of the 20th century’s most prominent women, including Marlene Dietrich, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Lily Pons, the Duchess of Windsor Wallis Simpson, First Lady Pat Nixon, and Marisa Berenson. His sophisticated elegance also conquered the international press, from The New York Times Magazine to The New Yorker, as well as Vogue America and Harper’s Bazaar. 

The exhibition covers two decades of Sarmi’s career from the early 1950s to the early 1970s, recounting the success of a designer who succeeded in combining elegant Italian tailoring with the cosmopolitan glamour of American society. Curated by Vanessa Gavioli, the head of the Museum of Costume and Fashion at Palazzo Pitti, and Eugenia Paulicelli, Professor Emerita at Queens College and at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, the exhibition falls within the scope of the research dedicated to Ferdinando Sarmi and conducted by Paulicelli – research that culminated in the production of the documentary Ferdinando Sarmi – Untold Stories of New York Fashion, previewed in the Museum of Costume and Fashion at Palazzo Pitti on 18 June 2026. 

Simone Verde, Director of the Uffizi Galleries, comments: 

“With this exhibition, Palazzo Pitti aims to bring Ferdinando Sarmi – a major yet still underexplored figure in 20th-century fashion and a significant interpreter of the international emergence of Italian style during the second post-War period – to public and scholarly attention. 

His professional path from Florence to Fifth Avenue bears witness to the ability of Italian creativity to dialogue with the great centres of international fashion and culture, contributing towards defining the image of elegance, craftsmanship, and refinement that has always accompanied the recognition of “Made in Italy” worldwide. 

The dresses on display, placed alongside items from the Fondo Sarmi holding and accompanied by a selection of period accessories, allows an important chapter of the history of taste between the 1950s and 1970s to be reconstructed, while offering new perspectives for interpreting the relationships between Italian fashion, American society, and visual culture in the 20th century. By analyzing the figure of Sarmi in greater depth, this exhibition allows the visitor to better comprehend the refined, sartorial origins of the Italian fashion boom during the years of ready-to-wear fashion.” 

Vanessa Gavioli, curator of the Museum of Costume and Fashion, adds: 

“The idea of the exhibition arises from the synergy between Eugenia Paulicelli and our museum, which began on the occasion of the studies the scholar was conducting in our museum archive. This collaboration allowed the dresses conserved in New York to be reunited with the Fondo Sarmi holding, which the Sarmi heirs donated to the Palazzo Pitti museum. On this this unique occasion, we can write a new page in the history of the influence of Italian on American fashion, while bringing a figure – who to date has never been explored – to the attention of studies in the sector.”