SCUOLA DI TAGLIO E CUCITO GADOTTI
GADOTTI DI MODA E DESIGN
Alma Gadotti was born in Trento in 1926, daughter of Alessandro and Natalia Demozzi, owners of a shoe shop in the city. As soon as she finished professional training school, she found employment for a few months at the Court as a typist. The work undertaken did not satisfy her and therefore, despite the good results achieved up to then, she left the position and left for Rome, where she attended the BELLIZZI cutting and sewing school. She had finally found a job she was passionate about!
But the devil wanted to have a hand in it because, after just a year, war broke out and then Alma had to return to Trento, from where she immediately left, displaced with her family, for Vigolo Vattaro. There the father moved his shoemaking business, the only way to make ends meet in those difficult times. It is then that Alma makes her first experiment in the field of fashion: she organizes and completes, free of charge, her first cutting and sewing course, enjoying incredible success. He was only 17 years old and so he was able to experience what he had learned in Rome in a short time.
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Once the war was finally over, he returned to the capital and in just two years completed his studies and obtained his teaching qualification, obtained directly from the Ministry of Education with top marks (30/30). From that moment his activity knows no limits. Upon returning to her city, she began collaborative work with Michelin, which needed workers trained in tailoring work. He thus transmits to an incalculable number of young and old what he had learned, allowing them to specialize. This collaboration continued for thirteen years, until 1960.
In the meantime he opens his own school in the city center. Also assisted by two sisters, Giovanna and Cornelia, she increased her activity and consolidated it. Stealing time from time, she gets married and gives birth to two children, without ever abandoning her beloved job. In the rare moments of rest he consistently prepares handouts, which he then distributes to his students so that they can better learn what he teaches them; reworks these writings which are still valid and recognized by all, so much so that, revised, corrected and completed with photos and captions, they become a book published by the S. Paolo publishing house of Alba.
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There are many thousands of people who have attended the lessons that Alma Gadotti has held over all these years and who have learned useful lessons both in working for family members and in being able to undertake the profession of seamstresses. The lessons given also gave the most enterprising students the opportunity to specialize in haute couture and wedding dress workmanship, receiving general appreciation from customers and notable success. In the meantime, the activity that we could define as editorial continued, as Mrs. Gadotti constantly kept her notes updated and then published other increasingly beautiful and more complete books.
There are many memories that characterize his life. He saw an era of transformations in the field of work pass before his eyes, from the times when pedal sewing machines and "sopresses", cast iron irons heated by embers, were used, up to the present day, with the very modern electric "cut and sew" and steam irons equipped with a boiler, while tailoring models are increasingly often developed with the computer rather than manually. Her habit, her belief in precision have always led her to have all the scheduled jobs carried out to perfection, so much so that her students have coined the nickname "Desfa" for her, due to the fact that, if a boss doesn't it was packaged to perfection, the only solution, first recommended and then also imposed, was to unpack everything, and then do it again with patience and method. Her "students", as she still loves to call them today, have always loved her very much, not only those who attended the courses that Alma held for free for the benefit of those in particular need, but also all the others, who they had the opportunity to get to know her and fully understand how willingly she always responded to their requests.
On 2 June 2000 she was awarded the title of Cavaliere del Lavoro. Daughter Marilena, who has always been "nourished" even with the air of "cutting and sewing school", has gradually inserted herself into her mother's business. But we are now launched into the future... Marilena Caliari was born in Trento with her professional career already practically marked: in fact her mother Alma Gadotti, with her sisters, was the owner - in the 1950s - of the first cutting and sewing school in the Trentino capital. As befits the daughters of an artist, Marilena... enrolled at the Institute for Surveyors in Trento, precisely to try to avoid what seemed already written. Marilena Caliari discovered that what awaited her was really what had been planned: work in the school and above all in the atelier which would later complete the school.
In this way the collaboration begins with the mother who transmits all the "knowledge" to her daughter. At the end of this period, in-depth studies follow by attending specialization courses in the major Italian centres. ​In 1990 the "epochal turning point": the cutting and sewing school passed into the hands of Marilena Caliari who, although respectful of the path traced out over more than half a century by her mother, gave the teaching imparted to hundreds of students every year the turning point that 'would have led to finding the most suitable and adequate solutions for dressing and creating in the new millennium. The courses and the preparation and adaptation phase, which lasted several years, led to a truly unique awareness and conscience: in 1997 the party for the 50th anniversary of activity, the parade of garments created by the students, the apotheosis of a cycle that was coming to an end but had sown the seeds for what would be: uniting the haute couture atelier with the Gadotti cutting and sewing school.
It happens that, in 2000, the family-run school turns into a company. With Anna Bianchi, a competent seamstress, the new brand "Marilena Caliari Alta Moda" was born and the aim was to validate the experiences and achievements achieved up to then, but with the aim of guaranteeing a path based on research, professional seriousness and awareness that the city ​​of Trento needs a high fashion house.
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And this is what Marilena Caliari and Anna Bianchi have achieved: a very popular school, with 9-month courses, attended during the day and evening by hundreds of students who learn the fundamental notions of sewing and pattern making. But at the same time the atelier in via Pilati 27 has also become a point of reference for those who have understood that a high fashion garment must be created following the trend, but above all interpreting the personality of the designer and of those who will then wear the elegant dress.
As a "consecration" of the targeted choice on the garment which is important but at the same time not so exclusive as to make it unapproachable, the decision of Adriana Volpe, soubrette, television presenter, model and VIP of the national popular star system, to embrace Marilena Caliari's idea, becoming the face and in this case also the "body", of the stylistic creations. With a professional and human relationship that revealed, where necessary, the happy intuitions of the Trentino designer.
And this is what Marilena Caliari, despite her young age, managed to achieve.
And the completion of this process is also concretely underlined by the fact that Marilena Caliari has been on the board of directors of the Association of Artisans and Small Businesses of the Province of Trento for 7 years, clothing sector and from 2001 to 2009 she was president of the same, always regarding its category.
Participating in Miss Italia, in this sense, is also a gratification that underlines the commitment, skill and seriousness of the Trentino designer.
Numerous events, parades and conferences were organised.
In 2002 it opened a new office in Bolzano, also organizing courses in German.
In 2004 she was awarded the title of "MASTER CRAFTSMAN"
In 2005 an agreement began with the A.Vittoria Art Institute of Trento.
In 2008 a new section opens, that of EMBROIDERY.
From 2009 to 2018 new courses are introduced
in 2020 great decision to find a space more suitable for the services offered.
On June 3, 2020, at the venerable age of 94, the founder Alma Gadotti left us.
In the same year we faced the big decision to find a more suitable structure that would allow us to offer more services. The move to Via Guardini allows us to take advantage of large spaces and the new and complete arrangement of the technical furnishings creates a usable and socially distanced environment which has allowed us, in the critical pandemic period, to be constantly in attendance.
We have been able to enrich the offer of further services and even the classic organization of courses has undergone a good innovative increase in training in the fashion sector.
With the establishment of the Fashion design course, an excellent sector for Trentino craftsmanship, as councilor Bisesti comments, the first young student designer who participates in a Tailor made television selection "Who has the stuff" has matured.
Throughout the year, there are other interesting opportunities for students who attend with great participation. Among these, the photography course managed by a professional in the sector and the light... shadows and colors course in which the student was able to express all his creativity in complete freedom of expression.
Through the collaboration of Fabio and Juan, "The leitmotif of leitmotifs" is also proposed, a meeting dedicated to creativity that develops in two phases: painting and draping.
