Polish-born Franz Laskoff was one of several distinguished artists (Leonetto Cappiello was another) hired by the music publisher G. Ricordi, founded in Milan in 1808, to design advertising posters like this one, mainly in the Stile Liberty or Italian Art Nouveau. Ricordi pioneered the development of color lithographic posters in Italy from the 1880s. Mele & Co., a clothing company, opened its first large emporium in Naples in 1889 and soon launched a huge publicity campaign with posters published by Ricordi, which went on to produce most of its advertising for the next two decades. Laskoff defines the forms in this composition in his characteristically elegant, linear Art Nouveau style featuring solid blocks of color.