Alberto Dalcò (1902-1963) nasce a Traversetolo, in provincia di Parma. Dopo la Seconda Guerra Mondiale, spinto dalla sorella Amabile, madre delle sorelle Fontana, si trasferisce a Roma e apre, in via Crispi 39-40, un negozio con annesso laboratorio per calzature su misura. Nel 1953 si sposta a Porta Pinciana. Insieme alle sorelle Fontana inizia una linea di scarpe e borse dal nome “Fontalcò”.
Una parte degli accessori per il corredo di Maria Pia di Savoia portava questa firma. Tra le sue clienti famose sono da annoverare Gina Lollobrigida, Sofia Loren, Soraya, Ava Gardner, Linda Christian, Audrey Hepburn, Kim Novak, Farah Diba e Brigitte Bardot. Contribuì a diffondere la moda del tacco altissimo e a stiletto su cui si ergevano raffinatissime décolleté. Creò per Diana Vreeland pantofoline in pelle con coccarda in gros-grain. Trentaquattro modelli Dal Cò, creati tra il 1954 e il 1960, sono esposti al Metropolitan Museum of Art di New York. Tra quelli storici, si ricorda la scarpa “Paparazzo”, creata nel ’53: una décolleté con un sottile tacco fornito di una rondella a piccole lamine, da usare contro l’invadenza dei fotografi.
Dal Cò vanta nella sua storia produttiva collaborazioni con le seguenti maison: Sorelle Fontana, Sartoria Carosa, Sartoria Antonelli, Lancetti, Valentino, Andrè Laug, Raffaella Curiel, Rocco Barocco, Carolina Herrera, Forquet.
Le sue creazioni sono state esposte negli anni Cinquanta al New York Fair of Italian Manufacturers, al Festival della Moda d’Estate svoltosi sul Lago di Como a Campione di Italia e Haute Couture Italienne de plein air (in occasione della Seconda Esposizione Tessile Internazionale).

Nel 1986 la figlia Nives e la nipote Silvia, decisero di spostare il negozio-laboratorio nella sede di via Vittoria 65  a Roma fino alla cessazione dell’attività  avvenuta nel 2015. Ora l’attività si è trasformata in Scuola di formazione per la calzatura d’alta moda, grazie alla nipote di Alberto Dal Co’, Silvia Petrucci Dalco’

Born in Traversetolo in 1902, as a young man Alberto Dal Co’ already worked as a shoemaker in his hometown. When Alberto moved to Rome, he first opened a bespoke shoe shop in Via Crispi 35 then, in 1952, he moved to Porta Pinciana. Alberto loved taking inspiration for his creations from faraway and exotic countries and mix them with elements borrowed from art movements. In 1958 he came up with a pair of shoes characterised by a single-seam construction in which the toe shape derived from traditional Indo-Pakistani footwear, but added to it a court jester bell on its point and a Dadaist heel. His quick wit and imaginative creations helped him to become very popular among the stars and celebrities of those times: among his clients there were Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Linda Christian, Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Soraya, Farah Diba, Audrey Hepburn,
Caroll Baker, Silvana Mangano, Anna Moffo and Brigitte Bardot.Throughout his career Alberto Dal Co’ also collaborated with different designers and historical fashion houses, from the Fontana Sisters to Fabiani, Carosa and Schuberth in Italy, to Irish designer Sybil Connolly in the UK.After he died prematurely in 1963, his widow Alberta, daughter Nives and son-in-law Enzo brought forward his legacy and heritage, developing the brand and paying homage to his memory by launching collaborations with further Italian fashion houses.The brand also started taking part in the most popular Italian fashion fairs and events such as the Pitti catwalk shows in Florence, where Dal Co’ became particularly popular with American buyers who ordered the shoes, but also bought the original models to reproduce them.As the number of clients expanded to include royals, celebrities and film production houses, the brand added new collaborations to its portfolio with Valentino, André Laug, Carolina Herrera, Lancetti, Raffaella Curiel and Rocco Barocco.

One of the most famous collaborations remains the one with the Valentino fashion house that spawned from the late ’60s to the ’90s. Dal Co’ produced elegant and refined shoes for Valentino’s Haute Couture shows, for its Boutique collection and for the house’s private clients. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis can be spotted in quite a few pictures wearing Dal Co’s heels for Valentino in the late ’60s, while Helmut Newton often shot for Italian fashion magazines models in Dal Co’ for Valentino in the ’80s.America was enchanted by Dal Co’: Carolina Herrera favoured the brand’s shoes for her catwalk shows and bought wooden lasts from the company. Diana Vreeland and, together with her many ladies shopping at Bergdorf Goodman, used to be Dal Co’s customers. In one photograph taken in 1979 by Jonathan Becker, Diana Vreeland is portrayed in her New York apartment dressed in an ample black gown, sitting cross-legged on a sofa in her living room and wearing Dal Co’s red crepe de chine court pumps with a rich satin cocarde; in another image she is standing next to a door, at her feet the bust of an ancient statue with its head bent, almost as if it were staring at the editrix’s feet encased in bright red snakeskin boots designed by Dal Co’.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Select the Best in their Collection to Publish 100 Shoes