The Gilmar Group's founders are Giuliana Marchini, the creative person in the family, and her husband Silvano Gerani, the manager. Their winning decisions and enthusiasm have given the former small knitwear manufacturing firm the size and importance it enjoys today.

The idea came to Giuliana Marchini Gerani who had a real flair for business in addition to the indomitable ability necessary for fulfilling one's dreams. As for Giuliana's dreams, they were born on a knitting machine and later kept very much alive in the Gilmar fashion company that she created with her husband Silvano Gerani. A collection of pullovers designed and developed with Jean Charles de Castelbajac, major budding talent discovered at a fashion school in Paris, lay the early basis for meeting the Iceberg challenge. Giuliana & Castelbajac together embarked on a road that would one day change Italy, so becoming pioneers of the golden age of Italian luxury ready-to-wear.

Giulianan Marchini was knighted for "services to industry" by the President of the Italian Republic in 1994. She was the 14th woman ever to receive the honour in the history of the Republic.

Silvano Gerani, the Group's chairman, is the company's organizational mind. His great pride is the establishment in San Giovanni in Margnano, along with the satisfaction of a company continuously growing over forth years.