Emilio Pucci

Marquis, sportsman, military pilot, politician. Just a few of the many words we could use to describe the figure of the famous Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci.

Born in 1914, exponent of one of the most known Florence noble families, Emilio Pucci’s name started to become famous in the High Fashion just after the Second World War. Back in 1947, while he was in Zermatt, he was noticed by a photographer of the magazine Harper’s Bazaar, who portrayed one of the young fashion’s designer creations: a skiwear appositely studied for one of Emilio Pucci’s friend. The magazine hired him to create a special skiwear collection for a story on European Winter Fashion, and soon his models appeared all over the world. Success hit the Italian stylist like an avalanche.

Starting with a Haute-Couture maison in the isle of Capri, one of the favorite holiday’s destinations of the celebrities, and later opening boutiques from Rome to Chicago, Emilio Pucci became one of the symbols of the made-in-Italy. The innovative use of stretch fabrics to produce ski-and-swimwear, the bright colors combined geometrically in his unmistakable prints, the light and versatile dresses that perfectly shaped women’s figure were the characteristics that made the Italian designer to be appreciated all over the world.

Politicians as Jackie Kennedy and stars like the actress Sofia Loren or the singer Madonna wore the Italian label at least once. Marilyn Monroe was buried with a Pucci’s dress on. Emilio Pucci’s name crossed the sky to reach the moon. Literally. In 1965 a collaboration between the Italian fashion house and an American ad agency began to restore the Braniff International Airways image. Pucci was asked to design uniform for hostesses, pilots and ground crew. Every item of their outfits, from turtlenecks to jackets, from culottes to the innovative “bubble-helmet” bore the Italian label’s imprint. The Apollo 15 mission carried a flag to the Moon, with three birds on it: they were a Pucci’s creation. We could say that Pucci had the merit to bring the “made-in-Italy” all over the universe.

While his name could be found everywhere, from the catwalk to Barbie’s dresses, from shoes to nightgowns, from uniforms to flags, Emilio Pucci turned to the politician career, not fully satisfied with his already brilliant path through Italian Haute-Couture. He was one of the representatives of the Italian Liberal party since the Sixties.

After the Italian designer’s death in 1992, the lead of the maison was taken by his daughter Ludomia Pucci, who works as its image director. Now the Italian brand is part of the French Louis Vuitton-Moet-Hennessy Group, who acquired the 67% of the Pucci label in 2000. Various famous designers have worked for the Italian fashion house, from Christian Lacroix, Stephan Janson and Julio Espada to Peter Dundas, Creative Director from 2009.

The Italian group after expanding his activity to men’s high fashion, which saw the collaboration of another worldwide known Italian designer, Ermenegildo Zegna, is now focused on producing women high-fashion and ready-to-wear collections, as well as home accessories, eyewear, perfumes and sportswear. The Italian label, which yearly turnover is around 50 millions of Euros, is distributed all over the world through a series of boutiques located everywhere, but most of all on the American sole, where Pucci represents one of the most popular symbols of the Italian fashion tradition.

Emilio Pucci Srl

Emilio Pucci Showroom

via Amedei, 8
20123 Milano, Italy
Tel: [+39] 02 885821
Fax: [+39] 02 8646 5348
Email: showroom_milano@pucci.com