Full disclosure: when his granddaughter Valentina and costume designer Andrea Sorrentino started the Piero Tosi fan club, I was the first member. Luchino Visconti’s quintessential film adaptation of the novel The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa with maestro Tosi’s exquisite costumes is part of what pivoted me from fashion design to costume. Years ago, when rounding a corner in Tirelli in Rome, I encountered Angelica’s white ruffled gown on a mannequin. Famously worn by Claudia Cardinale in the film, I immediately teared up thinking of the scene. When Netflix announced their reboot for the small screen, I was skeptical but curious. Why tinker with a masterpiece? But when I discovered Carlo Poggioli was designing the series, I became obsessed. Among his mentors, Poggioli counts both the legendary Ann Roth as well as Tosi. When asked what it was like to walk in Tosi’s footsteps, Poggioli chuckles. His first reaction was to decline. It took several days of deliberation and discussion with friends and colleagues before Poggioli realized he could bring something unique to a story that the current generation has not seen. He explained, “The beauty for Visconti and Piero was perfection.” For Poggioli, beauty would be rooted in realism.

Prince of Salina

This series unfolds over six episodes exploring the book in a way the film could not. Scenes in Sicily are drenched in honeyed light and pervasive heat. The world of The Leopard is best understood through the eyes of its namesake, Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, Duke of Querceta, and Marquis of Donnafugata (Kim Rossi Stuart). The prince embodies the decadence of Sicilian aristocracy facing its inevitable obsolescence. Refinement defines his character and reinforces the caste system that orbits him. Poggioli preserves Don Fabrizio’s meticulous formalism and tradition from his three-piece suits to his impeccable hunting attire. Based on research in collections like the Museum Raffaello Piraino in Palermo, Poggioli had the prince’s garments tailored in linens rather than wools. He loosened the prince’s collar to make him comfortable in his elegance. His waistcoats are often in subtle contrast, his hats cocked on a jaunty angle, and his neckwear sumptuous. The prince’s power is expressed through his constancy and refusal to make concessions in
his clothing.

Concetta VS Angelinca

Cool versus hot, controlled versus emotional, Concetta versus Angelica. Both love the same man, the prince’s adored nephew Tancredi Falconari. For Concetta (Benedetta Porcaroli), the prince’s favorite daughter, Poggioli uses delicate hues, fine details, and modest silhouettes to demonstrate her timidity and patrician bearing. Even in a nun’s habit, she is quietly refined. In contrast, Angelica (Deva Cassel) is defined by color. From the moment she appears she commands attention in bright hues of red or rose. For Poggioli, she represents the rise of the bourgeois. Her dresses strategically slip from her shoulders. She is voluptuous and sensual.
Even the prince falls under her spell.

In the series, Concetta is developed into a fully realized character with the largest emotional arc. The show closes with her in a dark formal riding habit, astride a horse, carrying a hunting crop. We see that Poggioli has chosen to place atop her head the traditional top hat with a long veil. In that moment as she gallops out of frame, one realizes that she has taken up the mantle of her father and has become The Leopard.

The Soldier and the Scoundrel

Tancredi Falconeri (Saul Nanni) is the moon to the Prince of Salina’s sun. Aristocratic and revolutionary, he has a foot in both worlds. With the family, he dons well-cut suits, but publicly he represents the new man, wearing the red shirt of the Garibaldini (soldiers). While Don Fabrizio tries to help him navigate politics, Tancredi is more comfortable in the changing landscape than his uncle is. He speaks the most famous line of the novel and series, “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.”

Angelica’s father and Tancredi’s father-in-law, Don Calogero Sedara (Francesco Colella) represents the rising middle class. Although he has accumulated vast wealth and his influence is growing, he is blind to the subtleties of noble customs and often wears incorrect garments that fit poorly. This adds a comic quality to his character, which belies his merciless ambition.

Society

Throughout the series, thousands of background actors fill the locations, playing family members, priests, peasants, and around 8,000 soldiers. Period clothing and even stock from previous films was too small in size to be usable. Poggioli and his team constructed the bulk of what is on screen. He marshaled an army to costume an army, enlisting costume shops, tailors, milliners, embroiderers, and dyers. To make the Sicilian heat palpable, each piece had to be carefully considered, dyed, painted, and aged. Every soldier has a personality and every priest a purpose.

Poggioli notes that in the Visconti film, the embroidered fabrics were scarce and were made in a convent. The costumes are substantial and weighty. For the Netflix series, he was fortunate to find a resource in France that embroidered the fabrics “exactly with my drawings, with my flowers, with my colors.” As a result, he ordered the miles and miles of textiles required. To lighten the garments, he reworked the petticoats in favor of something more traditional, abolishing the metal bands so the actors were able to move and dance with ease. The ballroom scene is a painting come to life. Poggioli’s costumes are in concert with the decadent architecture of the salon in the palace. When the guests dance, it is as though they are “pushed by the same wind, with the same kind of movement. I thought sometimes that they were flying. They were really like butterflies. That was very emotional for me. I will never forget.”