Before his dresses, all women of the past century have been clothed by René Gruau’s brush strokes.
Despite his French pseudonym, Renato Zavagli Ricciardelli delle Caminate was the son of a count from Rimini, where the artist spent the first years of his life before moving to Paris with his mother. In the French capital, the artist began his career of fashion and costume illustrator leading him to work for important designer brands such as Dior, Chanel, Yves Saint-Laurent, and Balenciaga.
He would often return to his birth town and the connection with Rimini endures even after his death. In Rimini’s monumental cemetery, Gruau’s tombstone is a tribute to the illustrious citizen’s creativity, symbolized by the silhouette of a woman, and his famous signature with a decorative asterisk.
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