Author(s): Vanessa Friedman

Fashion

This book features Pucci, the pioneering Italian fashion brand. It features Emilio Pucci, the prince of prints, his heritage and legacy. Emilio Pucci (1914-1992) had an amazing passion for women, a visionary sense of style, and an aesthete's eye for color and design. These talents led him to create 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 jetset. Today, the house remains as vibrant as ever - Victoria Beckham, Elizabeth Hurley, and Kylie Minogue are adherents - and recently celebrated its 60th anniversary with a star-studded event in the Pucci family home, a 15th century palazzo in Florence. The Pucci story is a modern epic with its roots in renaissance Italy: the brand's founder, the Marchese Emilio Pucci di Barsento, was an extraordinary, charismatic aristocrat whose lineage extends back to the 14th century. It is a story of evolution: how a family company grew from one tiny store to an international brand with 47 boutiques worldwide (and a presence in 250 more). 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. Lavishly illustrated with hundreds of photographs, drawings, and candid shots from the family archive, this luxurious XL tome captures the breathtaking elegance and drama of this unique brand. Vanessa Friedman's evocative text places Emilio's achievements in the context of fashion history, and provides insight into the remarkable Pucci dynasty. All books are bound into different original Pucci fabrics, so that fashion aficionados can choose between dozens of different covers.