Firstborn of three childrenDe Sarno grew up there Cicciano, a small community northeast of Naples, in a three-story house with parents, grandparents and an uncle's family. His mother, an experienced embroiderer, gave birth to him at the age of 17. Because of his baptismal name Sabato, which he was given in honor of his paternal grandfather, he was often teased as a child (“What's your brother's name? Wednesday? Thursday?”), but as he grew up, these relatively harmless jokes were replaced by crueler statements about his Sexuality. When I was a child it was the most beautiful place in the world, when I was a teenager it became the ugliest» he says about Cicciano.
He begins to see around the age of 13 Gianni Versace a role model: “He represented what I wanted to be when I grew up,” he says. “He was gay, very close to his family, came from southern Italy and lived in Milan.” During a school trip to Rome, he bought a red velvet jacket from Tom Ford: “None of my classmates knew it was Gucci,” he says. “But I do.”
He chooses this as his fashion schoolCarlo Secoli Institute Milan, because, as he says, it “taught more concrete things and cost less than others.” In the summer he works odd jobs: waiter, data entry clerk in a provincial office, clerk at Diesel… For a final exam in 2002, she designed a striped skirt that appeared black at first glance, but lit up in seven different colors when she moved. The garment wins the Golden Needle Award and attracts the attention of a talent scout from Prada, the house where De Sarno soon works under the tutelage of “coat master” Delia Coccia. De Sarno has extremely positive memories of his time in Milan: “I felt like I was in Disneyland,” he says. “I could love whoever I wanted and wear whatever I liked.”
However, he didn't have permission to design at Prada, so he left the company shortly after landing at Dolce & Gabbana, where he worked in the knitwear industry. A relationship that ended particularly badly causes him to leave Milan and accept an offer to join Valentino's team of stylists. While the Golden Needle trophy was gathering dust in his ex's house, De Sarno moved to Rome at the age of 26. Pierpaolo Piccioli, then one of Valentino's two creative directors, saw in him a keen intelligence tempered by a certain tenderness of soul, and soon became his mentor and friend. “Little by little he became my right-hand man,” says Piccioli, adding that he is pleased that De Sarno realized his vision with the “Ancora” collection, which marked a clear break from the characteristic exaggeration style from the Michele era of Gucci.