Emilio Pucci had a passion for women, a visionary sense of style, and an eye for color and design. With these talents, he created a fashion house unlike any other. By the early ’50s, his boutique on the isle of Capri was catering to wealthy sophisticates, heiresses, and movie stars buying his “Capri pants,” silk scarves, and lightweight separates. By the end of the decade, Jacqueline Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe were wearing his dresses, and by the mid-’60s, the label was synonymous with the gilded lifestyle of an international jet set.
The Pucci story is a modern epic with its roots in renaissance Italy: the brand’s founder Emilio Pucci, Marchese di Barsento, was a charismatic aristocrat whose lineage extends back to the 15th century. It is a story of evolution: a family company that grew from one tiny store to an international brand. And finally, it is a tale of innovation: Pucci was one of the first brands to bear a logo, and a pioneer of diversification into interiors, athletic wear, and accessories. It introduced free-moving, lightweight fabrics, pop-art prints, and a new color palette into womenswear, and constantly pushed fabric and printing technologies.
Featuring hundreds of photographs, drawings, and candid shots from the archive of the Emilio Pucci Foundation, this edition captures the breathtaking elegance and drama of a unique brand. Vanessa Friedman’s text places Emilio’s achievements in the context of fashion history and provides insight into the remarkable Pucci dynasty.
Vanessa Friedman is the fashion director and chief fashion critic of The New York Times. Previously, she was the fashion editor of the Financial Times, features director of UK In Style, and contributed regularly to The Economist, The New Yorker, and Vogue. She is the winner of the Fashion Group International’s Media award, the Newswomen’s Club of New York Front Page award for specialty writing, and the Fashion/Beauty Monitor’s Fashion Journalist of the Year award, and is on the advisory council of Princeton University’s History Department.
Armando Chitolina worked as a design consultant and art director at Vogue Italia and L'Uomo Vogue, and image consultant for fashion houses Moschino and Mila Schön. His TASCHEN titles include William Claxton's Jazz Seen, Gian Paolo Barbieri's Equator, The Book of Tiki, Naked as a Jaybird and Valentino: A Grand Italian Epic.
