Anne (Pantano) Verdi (1912 – 2007) was born in Italy in 1912 and came with her family to the United States that same year.
In 1930, the US census recorded the occupation of the young, 18 years old Bronx resident as “dressmaker.” Just four years later, Anne was head designer for New York’s Furst-Greenman Co., Inc., “manufacturers of dance frocks”.
Anne Pantano married Frank Verdi sometime around 1935. She submitted patent applications for her “new, original, and ornamental” dress designs in 1941. A month later Verdi charged Prom Dance Frocks, Inc., with infringement of patent rights for one of her designs.
A 1947 newspaper advertisement heralded Anne Verdi, Inc.’s “initial fall collection” of cocktail, dinner, and evening dresses, which designs were the keynotes of Verdi’s dressy fashion collection – such as her “cocktail dress(es)…meant for the sophisticated mature woman who likes her clothes liberally dashed with glamour.”
The 1949 Industrial Directory of New York State noted Anne Verdi Inc. was at 144 W. 37th St, NYC, manufactured misses’ dresses, and had five employees, having recently moved from 202 W. 40th Street. As the business swept into the 1950s, Anne Verdi Inc. was found at 491 7th Avenue in NY. A fashion article in the mid-1950s touted Anne Verdi’s “soft, young, and completely feminine…collection of dressy fashions…in elegant fabrics.” Those fabrics included imported organdies, embroidered and luxuriously printed silk crepe and peau de soies, with lavish use of laces. In late 1961 Elizabeth Goodwin, formerly with Nat Kaplan, Inc., joined the design staff of Anne Verdi, Inc.
A succinct November 26, 2007 obituary for Anne Pantano Verdi, age 95, failed to mention her long, illustrious fashion career.
Written by LKRanieri
from a late 1940s cocktail gown
Courtesy of pinkyagogo
