Giuliana Coen Camerino, handbag designer and founder of the Venetian fashion house Roberta di Camerino, died during Monday night at the age of 90.
Born into a Venetian-Jewish family in 1920, Giuliana Coen learnt about colour in her grandfather’s pigment factory. In 1943 she was forced to flee Italy for Switzerland and, having no money, she began making handbags for a leather goods shop in Lugano.
Returning to Italy after the war, Giuliana founded the only major fashion house in her native city of Venice. She called her label Roberta di Camerino, a homage to the Fred Astaire – Ginger Rogers film, “Roberta”. The song “Smoke Gets in your Eyes” from the film was the last piece of music she danced to before leaving Italy. Di Camerino was her husband’s surname.
Giuliana di Camerino is credited with making handbags fashion items in their own right and she became famous for her designs in velvet, often featuring brass clasps made by Venetian craftsmen. Her designs were often copied by other labels and it was Coco Chanel who advised Giuliana to “cry when they stop copying you”. Giuliana’s handbags were carried by fashion icons such as Grace Kelly, Farah Fawcett and Elizabeth Taylor.
In 1980 Giuliana closed her fashion house to concentrate on licensing deals but it reopened in 1996. The Sixty Group acquired the label in 2008 and dissolved many of the licences in order to concentrate on luxury handbags again.
The Mayor of Venice, Giorgio Orsoni, paid tribute to Giuliana as a promoter of the city and of the Made in Italy concept.
