The Loved Garment of Alda Balestra

Trieste-born Alda Balestra was crowned Miss Italy in 1970 and soon became one of the world’s top models between 1975 and 1990. Following her runway debut wearing clothes by emerging designer Gianni Versace, she walked the runways for all the era’s most famous designers, from Armani to Yves Saint Laurent, from Moschino to Thierry Mugler. She graced the covers of the main international editions of Vogue and other renowned magazines, photographed by masters like Irving Penn, Jean-Loup Sieff, Oliviero Toscani, and Paolo Roversi.

On the occasion of the opening of ITS Arcademy in 2023, she donated her Valentino Haute Couture wedding dress (now on display) and the editorial archive covering twenty years of her extraordinary career to ITS Arcademy, where they are preserved by the museum’s conservation experts.

“In 1990, I married Franz von Stauffenberg in southern Germany”, she recalls.

“Valentino personally suggested I picked any dress from his archive, and I had no doubts – this champagne-colored dress would fit perfectly with the baroque architecture of the church and the pastel colors of its marbles and stucco. The gown was part of Valentino’s 1989 Hoffmann Alta Roma Collection, inspired by the great architect Joseph Hoffmann, one of the founders of the Viennese Secession. The dresses revived the elegance of early 20th-century Vienna, set to the music of Gustav Mahler. And here we find the ‘verbindung’ (connection) with Trieste!

The gown will continue to live on in the ITS Arcademy Collection and I hope it will serve as an inspiration for all those who wish to admire and learn about a Haute Couture dress, in all its refined details and meticulous choice of materials.”

Alda Balestra’s “Loved Garment” gown will be on display until May 6, 2024. Tickets are available here.

Those who wish to submit their treasured garment for the exhibition can send a photo and a brief story to info@itsweb.org.