Emilio Pucci

Don 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 colors.

Early life
Pucci was born in Naples in 1914 to one of Florence's oldest noble families, and he 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 traveled to Lake Placid, New York, as part of the Italian team at the 1932 Winter Olympics, but he did not compete. After two years at the University of Milan, he studied agriculture at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, where he became a member of the Demosthenian Literary Society. In 1935, he was given a full scholarship to Reed College in Oregon in return for developing a college ski team. He earned 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.

World War II
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 he was arrested and transported to San Vittore prison in Milan. He was tortured there by the Gestapo in a futile attempt to extract information. Pucci then managed to escape and reach Switzerland, where he remained until the end of the war.

Fashion career
The first clothes designed by Pucci were for the Reed College skiing team. 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.

Pucci was the first person to design a one-piece ski suit. 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 he 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.

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. In fashion history, especially during the period of the 1950s and 1960s, Pucci was a perfect transition example between luxurious couture and ready-to-wear in Europe and the North America.

In 1959, Pucci decided to create a lingerie line. His atelier in Rome advised him to develop the line abroad, avoiding the difficulties of a decade earlier in matching available fabrics to the patterns of his first swimwear line. As a result, Pucci came to Chicago giving the lingerie contract to Formfit-Rogers mills. The venture proved to be successful, and Pucci was made vice president in charge of design and merchandising for the company a year later.

In February 1959, he married Cristina Nannini from Rome about whom he later remarked, "I married a Botticelli". They had two children, Alessandro and Laudomia. Alessandro died in a car crash in 1998, six years after his father.

Braniff Airways and NASA
In 1965, New York ad agency Jack Tinker and Associates was hired by Braniff International Airways to update their image. The agency's Mary Wells hired Alexander Girard to remodel the terminals, and Pucci to design new clothes for the hostesses. As the ads put it, it was "The End of the Plain Plane".

Pucci would end up designing six complete collections for Braniff hostesses, pilots and ground crew between 1965 and 1974. A mark of his impact was that by 1968 Barbie had versions of all of his first four uniforms. These avant-garde creations were designed as individual components to be added or removed as weather dictated. The uniforms included turtlenecks, T-shirts, crop jackets, and culottes. Among the more unusual innovations was a "bubble helmet" – a clear plastic hood worn by flight attendants between terminal building and aircraft to protect their hairdos from rain and the blast of jet engines. There were two designs of the "bubble helmet" that was dubbed RainDome by Braniff and Bola and Space Helmet by Emilio Pucci. The first edition, called a Bola, was a zippered version that ran down the center of the helmet and the second was a snap together version in place of the zipper called Space Helmet. Pucci incorporated Girard's "BI" logo into some of his prints.

Pucci's influence extended to the Moon. He suggested the three bird motif for the design of the Apollo 15 mission patch, although the crew replaced his blues and greens with a more patriotic red, white, and blue, according to Apollo astronaut and retired U.S. Air Force Col. Al Worden at a presentation,“Apollo 11: Behind the Scene,” at the Whalehead Club in Corolla, NC, July 18, 2019.

Political career
In addition to his work in fashion, Pucci contested the Florence–Pistoia district for the Italian Liberal Party in the Italian election of April 1963. He came second on their slate with 2,780 votes behind Vittorio Fossombroni, but the party only won one seat. However he succeeded Fossombroni in the Italian Chamber of Deputies in August of that year.

He retained his seat in the 1968 election, but lost it in the 1972 election, despite being the district's top PLI candidate with 4,231 votes.

Pucci label
After Emilio Pucci's death in 1992, his daughter, Laudomia Pucci, continued to design under the Pucci name. The French LVMH luxury goods empire acquired 67% of Pucci in 2000. Laudomia became Image Director, while LVMH brought in major designers such as Christian Lacroix (creative director 2002-05), and in October 2005, Matthew Williamson, and Peter Dundas from 2009. Other designers who have worked for the label include Stephan Janson and Julio Espada. Laudomia Pucci has created a talent centre in the family estate in Granaiolo and every year she invites students from Polimoda (Florence), ECAL (Lausanne) and Central Saint Martins (London) to see the Emilio Pucci archives and inspired by those, come up with new ideas.

Emilio Pucci clothes and accessories are sold through Emilio Pucci and Rossignol boutiques worldwide, and in high-end department stores designed by Lena Pessoa. The items mostly feature the designer's original brightly coloured, often swirly, prints or new designs in his original distinct style. The fashion house produces ready-to-wear clothes and accessories for women, in addition to a small range of men's accessories. In the past, the house has produced a more comprehensive range of men's wear, including a line in partnership with Ermenegildo Zegna, which included men's jackets lined with Pucci printed fabric, especially for American department store Saks Fifth Avenue. A limited-edition Pucci carrying case for the PlayStation Portable handheld gaming system was marketed by Sony as a high-end accessory on their PlayStation Signature line.

Pucci boutiques in the U.S., all designed by the Brazilian Lena Pessoa, are located in New York City, Las Vegas, Bal Harbour, Palm Beach, Beverly Hills, Boston, South Coast Plaza, East Hampton, New York, Miami and coming soon to Dallas. The newest of the stores just opened at 855 Monroe Ave. in New York City.

Clients include Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, singer Kylie Minogue and presenter Alexa Chung.

Pucci also designed the costumes for Rita Ora's Radioactive Tour. In March 2014, Alessandra Carra stepped down as CEO of Pucci.