Over the course of history, many queens and famous women have passed through the Piazzetta. From Victoria of Sweden to Simone de Beauvoir, from Mafalda D’Assia to Marguerite Yourcenar – the Piazzetta has always been a stage and in fact, it is thrown into a state turmoil usually only when movie stars make their appearance.
There have been very few exceptions; for Jackie Kennedy but she had married the President of United States, for Princess Soraya, but she had been the Shah of Persia’s wife. Otherwise, only stars and only international stars.
First as Kennedy widow,and later on as Mrs. Onassis, Jackie would walk through the Piazzetta to go to La Parisienne where Adriana Settani made Capri pants she adored: She ordered them in dozens. Her holidays in Capri were i no way inferior to those of a movie star.
Instead, Ingrid Bergman‘s presence on the island caused no sensation as, more recently happened to Gwyneth Paltrow, in Capri for an advertising campaign and to Barbara Streisand, hiding behind huge sunglasses,
Brigitte Bardot, seemed unimpressed by Capri glamour after the shooting of some scenes of Le Mepris by Jean-Luc Godard at Villa Malaparte, she strolled the island barefoot, with ruffled hair and a bold and unsociable attitude. She challenged the Piazzetta ‘s bars customers by pretending not to notice anyone.
On the contrary, Rita Hayworth and Sofia Loren,who were both well-disposed towards fans, were given a triumphal welcome from the Piazzetta. Rita Hayworth was much more than an actress, a celebrity or even a movie star. She was he symbol of beauty,of femininity,the object of desire of any man in the world. From Europe to Japan to Brazil, she was known as the “bombshell”.
Her likeness was placed on the first nuclear bomb to be tested as the Bikini Atoll. Nobody could have been sexier than Rita with her head of long flowing red hair, singing Amado Mio in black satin and elbow-length gloves as in the Gilda movie. Tanned to perfection, curly hair and simple blue and white polka dress, she disembarked from the yacht on which she had toured the Mediterranean sea alongside with her new husband, the prince Ali Khan, and went shopping on the island.
A very young Sofia Loren, in Capri for the movie “It started in Naples “, would have gone unnoticed—she arrived on a rainy day and stormy seas wearing a common raincoat, her head covered with a scarf like an ordinary woman-had she not been with the “King of Hollywood,” Clark Gable. His presence and the fact that the film director had set the entrance to the movie’s Belmonte Hotel in the Piazzetta, earned her the patron’s ovation.
Ingrid Bergman had the misfortune of appearing in the Piazzetta while a band was playing “The Power of Destiny”: at the time the scandal aroused by the divorce from her husband to marry Roberto Rossellini was on everyone’s lips. She took it laughingly.
Julie Christie was noticed when she won the Academy Award for the film “Darling” shot in Capri. During the day she was discretion personified. She had not attracted criticism as Brigitte Bardot, nor mockery as Zsa Zsa Gabor. She gained the locals’ belated esteem.
Many of these events were known among local people living in the island. One of them is Silvana De Gennaro whose father Antonio de Gennaro, was a paparazzo and a shop called Photo Azzurro. With the years he grew into being Jackie Kennedy Onassis’ s official photographer. When I asked him on an interview how he got the indisputable title he told me that after aggressively taking a shot of the widow walking down the street, Jackie got upset and threw her shoe at him.
I could not believe what I had just heard… I then asked what did he do after that? He answered, “Well, I threw the shoe back at her!” Still surprised with the story I let him carry on: “She then became more upset than ever and asked me in English, why?- And my answer was that she like me was a journalist and if she recalls she met the president of United States taking a picture of him.” Apparently she smiled and they became good friends, whenever Jackie would go, her photographer was behind her watching her back.
It’s with these and stories that Silvia De Gennaro and her brothers grew up helping manage in 1978 their father’s store and founding 30 years ago the Optical Capri snc. And as a creative result of this whole atmosphere Silvia founds the incredibly chic and exclusive eye-wear line named after the images she constantly had in mind.” Capri People“.
Based on artisan’s quality and originality, conveying and bringing in mind the charme and elegance of the 60’s she took most of the inspiration from her father’s collections of authentic photographs, storytelling and most of all his vintage glasses he would preciously keep in his store over time.
Accurate design and up to-date daring bright colors of red, green, gold, are revived by chromatic contrasts of their excellent quality polarized lens coming from the most prestigious laboratories in the North of Italy and preciously handcrafted and mounted is small ateliers with limited productions near the city of Venice.
Not to miss your own customized initials or name if you prefer, on the selected model. It will cost you an extra hundred Euros and a few weeks wait but think carefully…
Feeling like a star protected under the sun, is a all together a total different point of view!
Joelle’s Tips:
The Eyewear:
Capri People – First class : Via delle botteghe,27, Capri tel + 39 081.8379977- Fax + 39 081 837 9977 for info and orders: opticalcapri@email.it
Via Alabardieri,16-Napoli
Tel/Fax + 39 081 407343- Italy – email:info@capripeople.it
Photo Services in Capri: Photographic Services Capri: Foto Azzurro-Via Vittorio Emanuele ,50-80073 Capri -Tel.: (+39) 0818370956
Source:
Photography courtesy AD Capri edition 1988 – Divine place- Roberto Ciuni- Capri- semestrali di moda, Eventi e Lifestyle