Fashion designer owes his success to Hollywod

By Rita A. Widiadana

HONG KONG (JP): The 1990s have been heralded as the age of Hollywood in the global fashion industry.

The center of the movie business is so powerful and influential that it has become a new fashion capital. Celebrities have turned out to be supremely effective walking advertisements for many international fashion houses, wielding tremendous clout in the fashion hungry world.

Clothiers vie to outfit them to promote their designs at major events, often "lending" them the garments for a brief but potentially lucrative moment in the spotlight.

The recent Academy Awards not only celebrated the best in the movie industry but also functioned as the runway for new products of international designers.

The role of movie stars has been so great in lifting up the status of designers and boosting their business that it outshines the much feted supermodels.

The 67-year-old Nino Cerruti is just one example of a fashion designer who has risen to global fame on the back of celebrity endorsements. Although he inherited a well-established textile business from his family, Cerruti gained his celebrity status in 1986 when he began outfitting movie stars like Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. Actually, he had dressed Jean Paul Belmondo in 1965.

Oscar winners Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs, Richard Gere and Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman all wore Cerruti designs.

The list does not stop there. Demi Moore in Indecent Proposal, Sharon Stone in her thriller Basic Instinct and Harrison Ford in the romance Sabrina donned his designs.

Cerruti's latest sensation was the slinky and elegant wedding gown of John F. Kennedy Jr's bride Carolyn Bessette, which none other than Time declared was the most famous and most photographed dress of 1996. The gown was actually designed by Narcisco Rodriguez, a young designer in the house of Cerruti.

"I was already close to the movie world since I was young," Cerruti told a group of Indonesian journalists during the recent World Apparel Convention in Hong Kong. "I always love watching good films."

Born in Biella, Italy in l930, Cerruti took control of his family business in 1957. The Cerrutis had long been involved in Italy's textile and clothing industry.

Unlike his predecessors who focused on producing fabrics, Cerruti changed his business direction to the fashion business, which flourished in Italy during the late 1950s.

Cerruti's designs appealed to chic clientele. The Cerruti 1881 Group is currently a multi-billion dollar fashion house that has a full range of clothing products for both men and women, from fabrics for tailor-made suits to ready-to wear, accessories and sportswear. It has the brandnames Cerruti 1881 Arte (high fashion clothes), Cerruti 1881, Cerruti Brothers, NC Jeans, Cerruti RR Sport and Nino Cerruti.

Cerruti now controls numerous luxurious boutiques in Europe, the United States, Japan, Indonesia and other Asian countries. He has signed licensing deals with several companies in the United States, Japan and Indonesia.

"When I first started my career as a designer, I wanted to offer a new kind of fashion style, far from the 1950s glamour of haute couture," he recalled.

In the 1950s, haute couture still dominated, but Paris couture voiced a protest against mass production with displays of hand- sewn splendor.

"At that time, I felt that all fancy fashion was something of the past. I had to create dresses that could make people comfortable. I wanted to be closer to the real life and the real need," said chain-smoker Cerruti.

For that moment, he settled for making beautiful, practical and affordable clothes, leaving fancy costumes to others.

"I am not a couturier, I am just a maker of high quality ready-to-wear clothes," Cerruti said.

He defines his fashion signature as modern, comfortable, simple, clean and individual. "I love dressing people with nice dresses," Cerruti said.

Like music, fashion is a universal language, he said. "People need to fantasize and fashion is one of the instruments which gives ample room for their fantasy."

He moved his business to Paris and opened his first exclusive boutique in 1967.

Family man

"I am an Italian who sought the international life in Paris," said this self-confessed Europhile. "To become an international figure, I should think internationally and I should move to a world center, wherever it is."

Strong Italian traditions are still reflected in his family life. "I still maintain an extended family system. I feel comfortable in the company of my children, my grandchild and other close relatives. A typical Italian father," said Cerruti who has two children.

Cerruti came from a big, happy family. He has two sisters and four other brothers and he always puts family values first. Many people ignore the importance of the values without realizing that they ruin their lives, he said.

"Every success and failure start from our domestic lives," he said.

Commenting on fashion trends in the coming century, Cerruti observed that fashion will become part of people's daily lives. "Fashion no longer belongs to a limited circle of elite clientele. Dignity should not be something that only rich women have. It is something everyone should be able to acquire."

He mentioned that fashion styles will change globally. The standards of comfort, the changing dress codes and the rapid development of fabric and tailoring technology will shape the new fashion trends of the 21st century.

"People love nice and comfortable clothes in lighter but high quality fabrics in all kinds of designs, from business suits, casualwear to evening gowns," he said.

Although simplicity will be the watch word for fashion in the next century, Cerruti did not believe the flamboyance of haute couture would end.

Cerruti feels he is still in top condition and will remain active in the fashion world. However, he is already preparing his 24-year-old son Julian to continue his business empire when he retires someday.

"He has just finished design and business school," Cerruti said. "He has to create his own design and business styles because fashion is always changing."