#EMILIO PUCCI
Emilio Pucci, Marchese di Barsento, (20 November 1914 – 29 November 1992) was a Florentine Italian fashion designer and politician. He and his eponymous company are synonymous with geometric prints in a kaleidoscope of colours.
Emilio Pucci was born in 1914 of one of Florence’s oldest noble families, and would live and work in the Pucci Palace in Florence for much of his life. He was a keen sportsman, who swam, skied, fenced, played tennis and raced cars. At the age of 17 he travelled to Lake Placid as part of the Italian team at the 1932 Winter Olympics, but did not compete.
After two years at the University of Milan, he studied agriculture at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, USA, where he became a member of the Demosthenian Literary Society. In 1935, he won a skiing scholarship[citation needed] to Reed College in Oregon, received an MA in social science from Reed in 1937, and was awarded his doctorate (laurea) in political science from the University of Florence the same year. At Reed he was known as a staunch defender of the Fascist regime in Italy.
In 1938, he joined the Italian Air Force, and served as a S.M. 79 torpedo bomber pilot during World War II, rising to the rank of captain and decorated for valour by the time he left to pursue his fashion career. During the war he became a confidant of Benito Mussolini's eldest daughter, Edda. Pucci played a key role in the plan to save her husband, Mussolini's former Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano who was on trial for his part in the removal of Mussolini from power in 1943. The plan involved delivering some of Ciano's papers (which were highly critical of Mussolini) to the Gestapo so that they could be bartered for Ciano's life. After Hitler vetoed the scheme, Pucci drove Edda to the Swiss border on 9 January 1944 and ensured her escape. Before escaping, Edda wrote last pleas to General Wilhelm Harster, SD commander in Italy, Hitler and Mussolini, and Pucci delivered these letters to an intermediary. Pucci then attempted to flee to Switzerland himself, but was arrested by the Germans. He was tortured by the Gestapo in order to extract from him information on the location of the portion of Ciano's papers that remained in Italy. Then the Germans sent Pucci to Switzerland to tell Edda that she would be killed if she published any part of the diaries. Pucci delivered the message to Edda and remained in Switzerland until the end of the war.
Emilio Pucci, Marchese di Barsento, (20 November 1914 – 29 November 1992) was a Florentine Italian fashion designer and politician. He and his eponymous company are synonymous with geometric prints in a kaleidoscope of colours.
Emilio Pucci was born in 1914 of one of Florence’s oldest noble families, and would live and work in the Pucci Palace in Florence for much of his life. He was a keen sportsman, who swam, skied, fenced, played tennis and raced cars. At the age of 17 he travelled to Lake Placid as part of the Italian team at the 1932 Winter Olympics, but did not compete.
After two years at the University of Milan, he studied agriculture at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, USA, where he became a member of the Demosthenian Literary Society. In 1935, he won a skiing scholarship[citation needed] to Reed College in Oregon, received an MA in social science from Reed in 1937, and was awarded his doctorate (laurea) in political science from the University of Florence the same year. At Reed he was known as a staunch defender of the Fascist regime in Italy.
In 1938, he joined the Italian Air Force, and served as a S.M. 79 torpedo bomber pilot during World War II, rising to the rank of captain and decorated for valour by the time he left to pursue his fashion career. During the war he became a confidant of Benito Mussolini's eldest daughter, Edda. Pucci played a key role in the plan to save her husband, Mussolini's former Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano who was on trial for his part in the removal of Mussolini from power in 1943. The plan involved delivering some of Ciano's papers (which were highly critical of Mussolini) to the Gestapo so that they could be bartered for Ciano's life. After Hitler vetoed the scheme, Pucci drove Edda to the Swiss border on 9 January 1944 and ensured her escape. Before escaping, Edda wrote last pleas to General Wilhelm Harster, SD commander in Italy, Hitler and Mussolini, and Pucci delivered these letters to an intermediary. Pucci then attempted to flee to Switzerland himself, but was arrested by the Germans. He was tortured by the Gestapo in order to extract from him information on the location of the portion of Ciano's papers that remained in Italy. Then the Germans sent Pucci to Switzerland to tell Edda that she would be killed if she published any part of the diaries. Pucci delivered the message to Edda and remained in Switzerland until the end of the war.
The first clothes designed by Pucci were for the Reed College skiing team. But his designs came to wider attention in 1947, when he was on leave in Zermatt, Switzerland. Skiwear that he had designed for a female friend was photographed by Toni Frissell, a photographer working for Harper's Bazaar. Frissell's editor asked Pucci to design skiwear for a story on European Winter Fashion, which ran in the winter 1948 issue of the Bazaar. Although there had been some experiments with stretch fabrics in Europe before the war, Pucci's sleek designs caused a sensation, and he received several offers from American manufacturers to produce them. Instead he left the Air Force and set up an haute couture house in the fashionable resort of Canzone del Mare on the Isle of Capri.
Initially he used his knowledge of stretch fabrics to produce a swimwear line in 1949, but soon moved onto other items such as brightly coloured, boldly patterned silk scarves. Stanley Marcus of Neiman Marcus encouraged him to use the designs in blouses and then a popular line of wrinkle-free printed silk dresses. Pucci added a boutique in Rome as business thrived, helped by Capri's role as a destination for the international jet set. By the early 1950s, Pucci was achieving international recognition, receiving the Neiman-Marcus Award in Dallas and the Burdine's Sunshine Award in Miami.
By the 1960s Pucci was further thrust into greater status when Marilyn Monroe became a fan. She was photographed by George Barris in a number of his items in what would be some of her final photographs. She was buried in one of his dresses. As the decade progressed his designs were worn by everyone from Sophia Loren to Jackie Kennedy. And latter day pop icons such as Madonna in the early 1990s.
Initially he used his knowledge of stretch fabrics to produce a swimwear line in 1949, but soon moved onto other items such as brightly coloured, boldly patterned silk scarves. Stanley Marcus of Neiman Marcus encouraged him to use the designs in blouses and then a popular line of wrinkle-free printed silk dresses. Pucci added a boutique in Rome as business thrived, helped by Capri's role as a destination for the international jet set. By the early 1950s, Pucci was achieving international recognition, receiving the Neiman-Marcus Award in Dallas and the Burdine's Sunshine Award in Miami.
By the 1960s Pucci was further thrust into greater status when Marilyn Monroe became a fan. She was photographed by George Barris in a number of his items in what would be some of her final photographs. She was buried in one of his dresses. As the decade progressed his designs were worn by everyone from Sophia Loren to Jackie Kennedy. And latter day pop icons such as Madonna in the early 1990s.
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento