The imposing  Pitti Palace stands out on the square that bears the same name. It is a building with history and charm, built in the mid-fifteenth century by the Pitti family, designed by Luca Fancelli - a pupil and assistant  of Filippo Brunelleschi’s. Over the centuries noble families such as the Medicis and the Hapsburg-Lorraines lived there. It then became the official residence of the Grand Duke of Tuscany and of the Savoy after the unification of Italy.
In 1952 the Sala Bianca of the Palazzo hosted the so-called "Italian High Fashion Show", an event promoted by the business man Giovanni Battista Giorgini (1898-1971) with the aim of marking the excellence of Italian haute couture so that it would be known and appreciated abroad. He was the son of Vittorio – an industrialist in the marble trade, direct descendant of the nobleman Giovanni Battista and of Vittoria, Alessandro Manzoni’s daughter - and of Florence Rochat, from a Reformed family of Swiss descent, and sister of the Waldensian Pastor Giovanni Rochat.
Thanks to his initiative and his business nous, Giorgini turned  his "Fashion Show" into one of the references for haute couture lovers in Italy and abroad.