This exhibition stems from a long history of collaboration and friendship between Sergio Baroni and Hélène de Franchis, who first met in 1983 during a project titled “Ten Years of Creativity. Gianni Versace”, which Hélène decided to realize in her contemporary art gallery, Studio la Città, opened in Verona in 1969.
The whole project came about by pure chance. Hélène, while reading the weekly magazine l’Espresso, was struck by an advertisement featuring a young Gianni Versace. What surprised her was that a relatively unknown designer had chosen to collaborate with Richard Avedon, who was already a renowned figure in contemporary photography. The result of this collaboration was artistically and communicatively exceptional, as no one had ever thought of photographing fashion in such an original way before.
Intrigued by the boldness and quality of the work, Hélène reached out to Versace’s press office, which was managed by Sergio Baroni. The proposal to organize an exhibition based on this collaboration was enthusiastically accepted, marking the beginning of a partnership that, years later, would lead to the creation of this new exhibition.