Ferdinando Sarmi in Florence

The Museum of Fashion and Costume at Palazzo Pitti is hosting ‘Ferdinando Sarmi New York – A Journey Through Fashion from Florence to Fifth Avenue’, the first retrospective dedicated to Ferdinando Sarmi, fashion designer to Hollywood divas and tailor to First Lady Pat Nixon, a couturier who, after being ‘discovered’ by Elizabeth Arden – who wanted him in New York to head up her brand’s fashion line – was adored and sought after by the country’s most prominent figures during the 1950s and 1960s, including Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Barbra Streisand and the Duchess of Windsor.

Palazzo Pitti Museum of Fashion and Costume – until 31 December