Zoe, Micol and Giovanna Fontana

Sister Zoe was born in 1911, Micol in 1913 and Giovanna in 1915.

The sisters began working in their mother’s tailoring business. In the early 1030s Zoe and Micol worked in Milan.

Zoe moved then to Paris and after her marriage he returned back to Italy to work for Zecca in Rome. In 1937 Zoe created an accessories division, Valextra.

Sisters Zoë, Micol, and Giovanna Fontana had begun their business in 1936, but seized the public imagination when American films were made on location in Italy using their designs and, to a lesser degree, with the Italian film industry. The popular international appeal of the Power/Christian wedding and Ava Gardner's paparazzi-trailing fame brought vast worldwide visibility and recognition.

In 1940 Micol an Giovanna moved to Rome. After three years Zoe, Micol and Giovanna opened Fontana studio in Palzzo Orisini, Rome, designing and producing gowns for the Roman aristocracy and many film stars. In 1951 they had their first catwalk presentation of Italian Alta Moda in Florence. In 1957 their studio moved to present address. In 1960 the designed the first ready-to-wear-collection. They incorporated as Sorelle Fontana Alta Moda SrL by Micol Fontana in rome in 1985. The same year they sold Valextra to French firm Andrelux.

Furthermore the sisters designed for films from 1950s to 1995.

The Fontana sisters were so much a part of the Italian postwar renaissance that Rome designated a street Via Zoë Fontana.