100 years ago Thayaht and RAM designed the first TuTa

The only garment of fashion history that comes from Futurism that is still universally adopted and recognized today

In June 1920, Italian futurist artist Ernesto Michahelles, who adopted the pseudonym Thayaht, and his brother Ruggero Alfredo Michahelles, known as RAM, set a milestone in fashion history.

After the end of WWI and after the Russian Revolution of 1917, the two great Florentine artists had a clear objective.

In his last interview of 1958 with the Florentine newspaper “La Nazione” Thayaht explained: “We needed something that would break the habit of dull colors and mixes of brown, gray, and black. I had the festive colors of the Impressionists in my eyes. One day, passing by Via Orsanmichele, in a shop window, I saw brightly colored cotton and hemp fabrics at a low price. I took some samples and I set to work. The tailoring had to be economical and such that it could be made at home. Thus, the new type of garment would be within the reach of the masses as I had dreamed it.”

Thayaht in TuTa , Firenze 1920 Courtesy Archivio THAYAHT & RAM, Firenze

Thus, the prototype of the “all in one piece” TuTa came to be. And it was the first-ever jumpsuit.

The TuTa was designed to be an utopian garment for all people in all situations, affordable, and easy to tailor with minimal fabric wastage. Its simplicity and versatility were in contrast to the haute couture of the day. It powerfully conveyed the concept of popularity, elegance, color, and convenience ‘all in one‘. And the values of universality, simplicity, and rationality characterized also the choice of its name. It was for “TUTTA la gente” (for all the people). And when one ‘T’ was used to shape its design, it dropped from ‘TUTTA’ becoming ‘TuTa’. The lost consonant “T” regenerates and is reabsorbed and found in the model itself that has precisely the shape of a “T” .

For everyone to be able to wear a TuTa, Thayaht published the instructions for tailoring it in the Florentine newspaper La Nazione. And he proclaimed it “the most innovative, futuristic garment ever produced in the history of Italian fashion.” Indeed, it was also a provocation opposing the oligopoly of the major French fashion houses of the time and strengthening the concept of Italian fashion.

At that moment the now-famous “Made in Italy” fashion was officially born.

Ilona Catani Scarlett

Cover photo: RAM Cartolina pubblicitaria “Tuttintuta ! “, Firenze 1920 Courtesy Archivio THAYAHT & RAM, Firenze