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He passed away due to cancer in 1990, at the age of 38, but the designer Enrico Coveri had time to earn the nickname of child prodigy of Italian fashion, also because at just 26 years old he was consecrated on the catwalks of the pret- à-porter of Paris, and projected among the greats of the sector. Color, sequins, prints, innovation are the words that define his style, playful and unconventional, coherent and never aligned with trends.
In Florence there will be a street named after the creative
A style that is now analyzed and summarized in a biography, a coffee table book presented on his birthday (26 February) in the Salone de’ Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, the city where Coveri founded his maison, coming from nearby Prato where he was born.
Florentine art and Prato’s factories, culture and industry were fundamental in his work, which the Municipality of Florence now commemorates by naming a street after him, as announced by the mayor Dario Nardella by awarding the city’s highest honor, the Golden Florin, in his memory. to his nephew Francesco Martini Coveri, who today leads the maison with Enrico’s sister, Silvana Coveri.
The book: documents, sketches and unpublished photos
The book «Enrico Coveri. The King of Colors», written by art historian Silvio Balloni and published by Gruppo Editoriale, is contained in a fuchsia box set, the color that Coveri loved, and is the result of philological work in the maison’s archives. Unpublished documents, sketches and photos were recovered, such as those not used in some advertising campaigns that have become iconic, original sketches inspired by the pop art of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, evidence of the collaboration with Andy Warhol. The volume is written to be studied in fashion schools, to make known the stylistic path that has left a strong mark on the history of costume: from his debut as a model to his activity in the industries of Florence and Prato up to his success in Paris, always marked from joy.
Joy like that of the advertising campaigns, for which Coveri had chosen semi-unknown models at the time, destined to become catwalk stars, from Naomi Campbell to Linda Evangelista, from Cindy Crawford to Claudia Schiffer. Coveri was also a pioneer in licensing, from perfume to children’s fashion, from home lines to bags. Even today the brand, which remains in the hands of the family, “lives” thanks to licenses, while in the Florence atelier some unique pieces dominated by sequins are produced: those that will forever remain its “sign” in fashion.