Interviews
Hearst Tower in New York on January 23rd 2008
Ambassador Umberto Vattani, President of the ITC, answered questions on the red carpet at the campaign launch party.
Hearst Tower in New York on January 23rd 2008
Isabella Rossellini answered questions on the on the red carpet at the campaign launch party.
Isabella Rossellini’s speech given after receiving the “Life in I Style Icon Award” during the campaign launch at the Hearst Tower in New York on January 23rd 2008.
Hearst Tower in New York on January 23rd 2008
Ambassador Umberto Vattani, President of the ITC, answered questions on the red carpet at the campaign launch party.
 Ambassador Vattani, the new advertising campaign of the ITC has just been previewed on the screens of Times Square and is about to appear on magazines, tv and radio. What are your objectives?
“The campaign is beginning today, and it will continue for some time and it is meant to bring the major products which are well known for their quality and excellence not only to the large cities of the United States, but to all over the country. It will show that these products, which are in a way the best example of class and taste, are not only reserved for wealthy and privileged people. They can enter every American family, because they’re affordable, and they certainly appeal to the expectations that the Americans have things coming from Italy”.
In the TV and press ads, a charming Isabella Rossellini invites the viewers to “let yourself be charmed by an Italian”. What made you choose Isabella Rossellini?
“Well, she was chosen because she is a way, a personality that is a bridge between the two countries. She is well known and close to the heart of many Italians who know her from her modeling career, from her films, her books. But she’s also is very popular here, and she embodies perfectly the type of elegance and impeccable Italian style that this campaign will promote. She will be a perfect ambassador for the made in Italy, and we are delighted to be able to present her today with the Italian Trade Commission, first ever “Life in I style icon award”. She’d be the first recipient, and we believe that nobody has more deserved such a recognition than Isabella Rossellini”.
Hearst Tower in New York on January 23rd 2008
Isabella Rossellini answered questions on the on the red carpet at the campaign launch party.
 How did you welcome the proposal to become the new testimonial of the Made in Italy in the U.S.?
“Well, I think that my personal life and the development and the success of Italian fashion have been in the same parallel tracks. Italian fashion become very known in the United States in the last 20 years and that is, 25 years ago more or less, is when I moved here and started to work as a fashion model. I was a very successful fashion model, and I worked in fashion and then films and for many years. My base has become the United States but I’m Italian, I have an accent, and an Italian passport.
I am so honored to have been chosen by the Italian Trade commission to represent Italy. I have lived in the US for many years but I remained at heart Italian. This campaign is to celebrate Italy as a whole, not just the top designers but really this long tradition of handcraft and quality and tailoring that we have in our country”.
What does the Made in Italy represent?
“Well, I think that Italy, for centuries, from the beginning of time had this incredible sense of style. You can see it in Renaissance paintings the way people dress, the clothes they wear, the art that comes from there.
When I think of Made in Italy, I think first of all of quality, the quality of the textile, the quality of the tailoring, the quality of the manufacturing. That is the real strength of Italy and then the great artists”.
Is this what makes Italian products so fascinating?
“I think the great marriage and the great success with America it is the fact that both Italian with their classical line and American practicality and need of being practical married very well. So Italian fashion I think is more inviting to an American who wants luxury but doesn’t want to give up comfort and matter-of-factness. So I think that was really what allowed Italian designers to be so wonderfully received in the United States”.
Isabella Rossellini’s speech given after receiving the “Life in I Style Icon Award” during the campaign launch at the Hearst Tower in New York on January 23rd 2008.
 “I have to follow up with wonderful speeches. I am so honored to have been chosen by the Italian Trade Commission to represent Italy. I have lived in the US for many years but I remained at heart Italian. I still have it in my voice, in the food I eat, in the language I speak at home, and I can’t help it tonight thinking of the 70s when I first came. And Italy for Americans weren’t Italian Americans. It was a country that came from war, the war that my father’s films depicted so well – a country that was ruined. And I was the child that was born after, in an Italy that reconstructed itself, in an Italy that was able to then bring all this incredible tradition of artisans and know how and leather goods and tailoring and manufacturing. When I first was in America and people heard me, they were always ascertaining(?) me with Italian Americans and I would say “no, it’s different,” it’s not anymore like this. I think now I don’t have to present Italy anymore when I say that I’m an Italian - people think of 5th Avenue or Beverly Hills. I am just so honored that my government has given me the honor to do this campaign to represent the greatest quality of Italy and our incredible ability to survive, come up, and rebuild ourselves, and our friendship with America, with whom we have so much to share, especially me. Because this is my two countries – United States and Italy. Thank you so much”.
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