Elizabeth Taylor wears Bulgari jewelry, some pieces of which are on display in the show.

Stanfill says she approached the show from a very V&A angle. "We like to talk about process, and give a sense of the hand and the maker," she says, adding that people who are looking for an encyclopedic review of Italy's fashion houses will have gone to the wrong place. "What we focused on are points of influence."

The glamour of the show's title shines through chiefly at the end, with a lineup of some of the greatest hits from the past four decades, a time when Italian designers became more famous than the people they dressed, Stanfill says.

The displays include Miuccia Prada's shooting flame heels from spring 2012, Tod's driving shoes, a dress from the Valentino Couture Wunderkammer collection, a floor-length number from Fausto Puglisi, and Giorgio Armani's slouchy suits.

About 40 percent of the items have been loaned from more than 30 archives, institutions and collectors, including the Pucci Foundation, Palazzo Pitti, the University of Parma and the archive of Giovanni Battista Giorgini.

A buying agent, Giorgini was the grandfather of Italy's runway shows: In the early '50s, he was instrumental in bringing Italian designs to buyers from stores like Bergdorf Goodman, I. Magnin and B. Altman, as well as in international publications.

Giorgini started showcasing the Italian collections from his home in Florence, and later moved them to the Sala Bianca at Palazzo Pitti in Florence. The gowns were one-third of the price of those in Paris and the buyers were impressed by the Italians' sense of color and the richness of the textiles, says Stanfill, who recreated the early days of the Sala Bianca at the beginning of the show.

It's clearly had an impact. British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman, another co-host of the launch event, says she was struck by the early "wonderful evening dresses that you'd still want to wear today ... those kind of gala gowns really haven't changed that much."