An historic Italian atelier that helped make the dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in the iconic subway vent scene in The Seven Year Itch has appealed to the government for help to stave off closure.
The family owned tailoring business, Sorelle Antonini or the Antonini Sisters, made the pleats for the ivory dress that blows up over Monroe’s thighs in the New York scene in the 1955 Billy Wilder romantic comedy.
The dress – perhaps the best-known frock in cinematic history but once dismissed by its designer, William Travilla, as “that silly little dress” – was sold at auction in 2011 for $4.6 million.
The company was established in Rome 120 years ago and has made dresses for the likes of Elizabeth Taylor in the film Cleopatra and Greta Garbo, but high rents and Italy’s long recession have driven it to the brink of closure.
“We’re just not getting the work. The fashion industry in Rome is not what it used to be,” Simona Belcastro, the great-granddaughter of the founder of the business, told The Telegraph.
“The rent is far too high and we are six to seven months in arrears. Then there are bills to pay, accountants’ fees … we just can’t manage it any more. We need help from the government and that’s why we’ve made this appeal.”
Ms Belcastro has written to Luigi Di Maio, deputy prime minister in the coalition government and also minister for economic development.
She points out that the historic “bottega” or workshop is owned by the Italian State and has appealed to the minister, who is also head of the Five Star Movement, to lower the rent.
“We’ve had the honour of working for famous actresses such as Greta Garbo and Isa Miranda (a popular Italian actress in the 1930s) and we don’t want to face oblivion,” they wrote in the letter. “We cannot close down – we are the maestros of plisse’.”
The letter was sent earlier this week and the owners have not had a response from the government.
The atelier was closely associated with Italy’s post-war “Dolce Vita” era when actors, actresses, directors and paparazzi would throng the bars and restaurants of nearby Via Veneto.
Italy’s film industry thrived, with the huge studios of Cinecitta nicknamed “Hollywood on the Tiber”.
The tailoring company’s painstaking technique of making pleats – by hand and with the help of a 70-year-old steam oven – has been used in dresses and costumes for Valentino, Balestra, Fendi and other famous fashion houses.
The difficulties facing Sorelle Antonini are part of a broader trend in Rome in which historic bookshops, frame-makers, furniture builders and other traditional businesses are being squeezed out by high rents and fewer customers.
They are often replaced by ugly, garishly lit convenience stores and tourist trinket shops that are more profitable but much less picturesque.
Convenience stores have dramatically increased in number in Rome’s cobbled centre in recent years, along with kebab shops and self-service vending outlets.
“In the last 10 years, the number of artisanal businesses in Rome’s historic centre has declined from 5,000 to less than 2,000,” said Giulio Anticoli, the president of the Association of Historic Shops.
While it has gone down in history as one of cinema’s most iconic scenes, it was far from easy capturing the moment that the updraft lifted Monroe’s dress.
Filming took place after midnight on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 52nd Street, but after 14 takes and three hours, the producers were still not happy.
The scene had to be shot again on a film lot in California. To preserve her modesty, Monroe wore two pairs of white knickers.