The one of Jaro Petti it’s a beautiful Italian story. Indeed, a beautiful Turin story. Of that south that saw hope and the future in the north, and in this city. It was an Italy divided (more than now) in two. So Gennaro, who was 15 years old and loved imagining the beautiful hairstyles framing the faces of the ladies, arrives in the land of Savoy and, one step after another, finds his way. Today he is 70 years old, on Friday he was his last day in the atelier in via Cavour and he is ready to remember, again with joy and emotion, what his life was.
«My father and mother were simple people. And good. We came from Candela in the province of Foggia, we arrived in Turin in ’68. Since I was little I dreamed of being a hairdresser, I did the hair for my sisters’ friends. My father, however, imagined another path for me. Obviously he hoped I would join Fiat.” Instead, he begins to study the trade, attend academies, work his way up. Which, however, doesn’t last long: he is very good. He did his apprenticeship in Moncalieri with Gianna Martini and then moved, as artistic director, from Oretta to via Roma on the corner of via Cavour, «in the evenings, to supplement my income, I also worked at home». After a year, with two or three other employees, he opened his own studio.
It was 1979 when it arrived in via Cavour 19. He was never Gennaro again, «it was a name that no longer belonged to me, it wasn’t suitable for the job, I told my father that if he called me that again, I would never look back. He understood me.” And now, as if in the blink of an eye, that time closes: «The time has come. I served women until the last moment, in the midst of joy and creativity. I loved and respected them, I made them beautiful and never the same, all different, naturally personalized.”
Jaro remembers very well almost all the faces and personalities who passed by him, national and international, as Gorbachev’s daughter, Irina, whose look he changed. And then: Rossella Falk, «who came at 8 in the morning and had her hair done only by me, not even by the RAI hairdressers», Brigitta Boccoli, Isabella Goldman, Debora Caprioglio, Christian De Sica and Silvia Verdone, Paola Tedesco, Sylva Koscina, Giuliana De Sio and Francesco Nuti, Giulia Lazzarini, Raina Kabaivanska… in short, all the stars passing through Turin have passed through him. «I have done reports for Amica, Vogue, il Corriere, Harper’s Bazaar, Gioia, Bolaffi’s newspaper…».
He doesn’t name Turin names because he knows the protocol of certain levels very well, «indeed I had a hidden corner in the atelier, especially for those who didn’t want to be recognised, for ladies perhaps without make-up, for gentlemen incognito.” There are many memories but not even a hint of regret: «In my life I have been very lucky. And I found faith in Jesus, there is nothing that gives more happiness. For years I have been writing poems and spiritual songs (published with Genesi Editrice) and I can’t wait to be able to dedicate myself completely to these things, together with my wife Albina”.
