Vintage Poster Archives
Cappiello Mele Napoli 1903 | Italian Fashion Poster
Cappiello Mele Napoli 1903 | Italian Fashion Poster
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A woman in a floor-length red patterned dress, a grey fur stole draped over both shoulders and a green-feathered hat, turns towards a smiling man in black tailcoat, top hat and white tie. He leans slightly in, cane in hand, face creased with pleasure. The pair share a close, lighthearted moment against a saturated forest-green ground, the composition completed above by bold yellow display lettering, Novità per Signora, and below by the large store logotype: E. & A. MELE & Ci. NAPOLI. The figures are drawn with the loose, animated line that Cappiello refined over years as a caricaturist for Parisian journals, expressive enough to carry across a billboard, grounded enough to hold close attention.
Leonetto Cappiello designed this poster in 1903 for E. & A. Mele, the Neapolitan department store founded by cousins Emiddio and Alfonso Mele in 1889. Modelled on Paris's Bon Marché and Galeries Lafayette, Mele was Italy's first department store in the grand European format, and its advertising campaigns were produced through Officine G. Ricordi & C. in Milan, the same firm that printed opera posters for La Scala. Cappiello contributed multiple designs to the Mele series, and this 'Novità per Signora' composition is among the most characterful: the red-and-green colour contrast on a deep ground is bold and direct, the narrative warm and sociable.
Cappiello (1875–1942), born in Livorno and working in Paris from 1898, would go on to define the modern advertising poster through his use of a single animated figure against a stark dark background. In 1903 that signature was still developing, and the Mele series shows him at a pivotal moment: the caricaturist's wit is fully present, the graphic confidence is growing. The Archivio Storico Ricordi in Milan holds records of the Mele poster commissions as among the most notable in its collection alongside the Cabiria film series and the Campari campaign.
Reproduced from archival source material as a giclée print on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper. The saturated cadmium red and deep forest green of the original lithograph reproduce well on the natural-white matte surface, without the glare that a coated paper would introduce. A considered choice for a period-specific collection in Italian graphic design or Belle Epoque advertising history.
