http://www.pressreader.com/canada/montreal-gazette/20071118/281728380168265
Exacting seamstress who could identify fabrics by touch
Angelina di Bello
1917-2oo7 She was a perfectionist who worked with The Gazette’s
Iona Monahan at Expo 67, and wrote three books
Montreal Gazette18 Nov 2007ALAN HUSTAK THE GAZETTE
Angelina di Bello was an exacting seamstress and an exuberant mistress of haute couture who kept viewers in stitches with her sewing classes on both French and English television during the 1960s and ’70s.
Di Bello had her own haute couture sewing school in Montreal, wrote three books on dress design and pattern-making, had a widely read column in the Journal de Montréal, and achieved renown across Canada with her television shows, Pins and Needles in English, and De fil en aiguille in French.
She was 90 when she died of diabetes at the Mance-Decary special care home on Nov. 4.
“She was a perfectionist who knew everything about fabric,” said designer Molly Young, di Bello’s last student.
“Even after she went blind, she could identify fabrics by touch. If your stitch- es were off one-eighth of an inch she’d make you rip them out and start all over again. With her, everything had to be perfect.
“She was chic. If she drank tea, it had to be out of a bone china cup. Her nails were always manicured, right up until the end. Her dresses had to be made from natural fibres, no synthetics.
“She was a classy lady to the nth degree, always in fashion. She lived by her motto: ‘always wear classic clothes, classic clothes never die.’”
Angelina Torrito Ravenda, the daughter of Italian immigrants, was born in Montreal on Feb. 5, 1917. She was one of 12 children in her family and went to work during the Depression sewing buttonholes for Ida Desmarais, then Montreal’s leading dressmaker.
Angelina flirted with the idea of becoming a nun and spent a year in a convent. She then studied dress design with the Société des ouvrières catholiques, and took a correspondence course from Chicago’s National School of Dress Design. She later received a diploma from the Instituto Secoli in Milan.
In 1946, she opened a salon on Tupper St. and employed about 20. Frustrated by the shoddy work done by her garment makers, she opened a dressmaking school on Crescent St. to instruct students how to pleat a skirt properly, pad a shoulder and flatter a figure no matter how large or small.
In 1966, she was the only North American to be authorized by the House of Dior in Paris to make use of the Dior Pleat, which had been invented by Christian Dior to eliminate unsightly slits in the back of a garment and which Dior had copyrighted.
Di Bello worked with Gazette fashion maven Iona Monahan to co-ordinate the fashion shows during Expo 67. She was responsible for fitting and altering the more than 800 garments that were shown during the six-month exhibition.
In 1976, she designed and tailored the Greek gown for the women who carried the Olympic flame as well as all the hats worn by athletes in the Parade of Nations at the Montreal Games.
Although her favourite designers were Pierre Balmain and Coco Chanel, she often chided people for buying labels instead of workmanship.
“People will pay anything for a label, but if they are having a dress made to order, they’ll ask the price and then complain because it isn’t cheaper,” she said.
In 1973, she was the first recipient of the Gold Thimble award for outstanding achievement in home sewing.
After her husband, Luigi, died in 1975, Di Bello closed her couture boutique but continued teaching and taping her television show until she was 70.
“She catered to the crème de la crème,” her daughter, Nicole, said.
“The woman was a workaholic, she never stopped. She was a designer, pattern maker, seamstress and teacher. The whole works, A-to-Z, she did it all. She loved her work, absolutely enjoyed it.”
Di Bello’s funeral was at Mary Queen of the World Cathedral on Nov. 8, and on Monday she was buried with a thimble, a package of English needles and a dress-designer’s clay chalk marker “just in case she needs something to keep her busy in heaven,” her daughter said.
She is survived by her three adopted children, two sons and a daughter.