Italian designer Romeo Gigli (born 1949) won renown for almost singlehandedly causing the renaissance of elaborate beading, drapery, and the use of luxury fabrics such as velvet, brocade, and silks, all in a modern manner.

Romeo Gigli was born in Faenza, Italy into a wealthy aristocratic family. One need only look at his childhood to find the beginning of his love of luxury. Gigli's father was in the antiquarian book business and Gigli himself acknowledged: "My ideas are all from pictures I have in my head from 15th and 16th century books." But inspired as he was by his father's trade, Gigli did not go into the family business. Instead, he studied architecture for two years, traveling regularly to the European capitals of London and Paris. In 1972, a store in Bologna, Italy, asked Gigli to design clothes based on the avant-garde street fashions he had seen in these two...