Gattinoni returned to Italy in 1930 to become head of the creative department for the Ventura atelier after declining an offer to work for Chanel in Paris.
[2][4] Gattinoni helped design Marie-José of Belgium's wedding dress for her 1930 marriage to Umberto of Savoy, the future King of Italy.
[8] She declined an offer to work for the Chanel fashion house in Paris in the late 1920s,[2][6] since she disliked the atmosphere of the city.
Gattinoni was appointed Ventura's director of design department when the fashion house opened an office in Rome in 1934.
[11] Gattinoni became notable in the 1950s and 1960s during the period of Hollywood on the Tiber,[7] where she had 25 embroiders working full-time on her gowns made of heavy taffetas and marocain and subsequently chiffon.
[3][6] She was the designer of costumes worn on and off-camera by Ingrid Bergman, Lucia Bosè, Clara Calamai, Angie Dickinson, Ava Gardner, Gina Lollobrigida, Anna Magnani, Kim Novak, Elizabeth Taylor and Lana Turner.
"[6] According to Lola Galán of El País, Gattinoni "was always faithful to the criteria of orthodox elegance, and hated, for example, transparencies and excessive suits.
[5] Four years later, a garden in Rome was named after her and a toponymic plaque bearing the inscription "Giardino Fernanda Gattinoni: Sarta e Creatrice di moda (1907–2002)" was inaugurated in January 2015.