With the major exhibition Walter Albini. The talent, the designer, curated by Daniela Degl’Innocenti and Enrica Morini, the Fondazione Museo del Tessuto in Prato from March 23 to September 22, 2024 pays tribute to the genius of the designer and absolute pioneer of Made in Italy Walter Albini (1941-1983), just over forty years after his premature death.

Walter Albini. The talent, the designer aims to offer a reinterpretation of the entire professional career of an absolute protagonist of Italian fashion between the late Sixties and the early Eighties, born from a long research conducted by the curators in order to outline a comprehensive and documented portrait of the designer.

For the first time, the exhibition combines with graphic materials - drawings, sketches, photographs, fashion magazines, and archival documents - many garments, accessories, and fabrics often unpublished and never exhibited, thus allowing to reconstruct the entire creative history of Albini, from his early experiences as an illustrator and fashion designer to the latest collections of the Eighties.

The starting point for the project was the Walter Albini Collection of the Museo del Tessuto, acquired thanks to a substantial donation from Paolo Rinaldi, a collaborator of Albini, received between 2014 and 2016: a heritage that includes over 1,700 objects including bijoux, sketches, drawings, photographs, documents, books, garments, and fabrics belonging to the designer, documenting his interests, creativity, and great design skills.

The exhibition project is also enriched by important loans from public institutions such as the Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione (CSAC) of the University of Parma and Palazzo Morando | Costume Moda Immagine in Milan, and from private lenders: Archivio A.N.G.E.L.O., Archivio Nicoletta Canu, Collezione Carla Sozzani - Fondazione Sozzani, Collezione Doris Beretta, Collezione Enrico Quinto e Paolo Tinarelli, Collezione Francesco Campidori, Collezione Ilaria De Santis, Collezione Massimo Cantini Parrini, Collezione Simona Morini, Collezione Tiziana Vintageafropicks, Collezione Vito De Serio, Madame Pauline Vintage Archivio.

Among the famous photographers who have granted access to their archives for the exhibition and the catalog, we remember Maria Vittoria Backhaus, Archivio Alfa Castaldi, Archivio Ballo&Ballo - Civico Archivio Fotografico, Comune di Milano, Fiorenzo Niccoli, Franco Bottino - Archivio Storico Fondazione Fiera Milano, Fondazione Gian Paolo Barbieri, Aldo Liverani.