EMILIO Pucci wasn’t expected to earn a living. Born into Florentine nobility in 1914, Pucci liked to boast that he became the first person in his family to “work” for 1,000 years.

Pucci could have spent his life skiing. Instead, he designed a ski suit for his girlfriend. It caught the eye of a photographer and a career as a fashion designer began.

In the late 1950s, when the family fortune had waned, Pucci moved to Capri, set up a small store and began to make the bright, bold, contemporary clothes that launched the Pucci brand, one synonymous with colour and movement. Soon, Brigitte Bardot and Marilyn Monroe were wearing his designs.

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His daughter Laudomia Pucci eventually took over the label, but, as she points out in Pucci, an updated edition of TASCHEN’s sumptuous, beautifully illustrated book on the history of the fashion label, it was her father who created the Pucci template.

“He wanted to give women freedom, joy, make them as beautiful as possible.”

The Herald:

Shirt in silk twill featuring the “Shell” motif, Spring/Summer 2018 Collection. Silk blanket worn as a headscarf featuring the “Onde” motif. Model: Emily Liptow. Photograph © Armin Morbach/TUSH Magazine.

Taken from Pucci. Updated Edition, by Vanessa Friedman, Alessandra Arezzi Boza, Armando Chitolina, TASCHEN, £200