"To Marquis Emilio Pucci - Palazzo Pucci - Via de' Pucci 6 - Florence" This was the addressee and address of an important letter in 1954 informing that Marquis Emilio Pucci di Barsento had been awarded the Neiman Marcus Award, the prestigious American Fashion Oscar. Eclectic visionary and passionate .... "The Prince of Prints" (as he was acclaimed in the United States, a country that has always loved him very much) has traced a personal and indelible path in the fashion world that still evokes freedom, lightness and a certain polite irreverence.
Emilio came to fashion almost by chance: after the Second World War he supported himself by working as a ski instructor at Sestriere; easy for him who had taken part in the 1936 Winter Olympics with the Italian national team. Less obvious is a very happy and creative hand that designs some decidedly innovative ski outfits. What was missing was the spark, which came in the form of a now legendary photograph in which Pucci elegantly helps a charming Toni Frissel on the snow wearing one of his ski creations. The shot was published in Harper's Bazaar and was an immediate success.
Just three years later, in 1950, he opened his first boutique in Capri: the enchanting island was becoming one of the favourite destinations of rich Americans travelling in Europe, and Pucci was there. Group fashion shows followed, first at Casa Giorgini in 1951 and then in the Sala Bianca of Palazzo Pitti in 1952. The 1954 Fashion Oscar consecrated an established star who would enlarge and consolidate the multicoloured and always fascinating Pucci world without neglecting his civic commitment: City Councillor in Florence, Member of the Republic, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Transport, Cavaliere del Lavoro .... Emilio Pucci's life almost seems to be longer than the others, with more days, more months, more years!
The part that fascinates me most, however, is that of his younger years. Born in 1914, after participating in the 1936 Olympics, he continued his studies in the United States. In 1938, he enlisted in the Regia Aereonautica, where he distinguished himself, despite thousands of personal difficulties and the historical period, until he was awarded the Croce di Guerra al Valor Militare and 3 Silver Medals for Military Valour.
Returning to Florence after the Armistice of 8 September, he was joined by Edda Ciano Mussolini, to whom he was bound by a historical friendship. The Duce's daughter, the day after the Armistice, was deported to Munich with her children, whom she left as hostages to return temporarily to Italy in an attempt to save the life of her husband Galeazzo, who was in prison in Verona. She hoped to succeed by threatening to make public Ciano's diaries, feared by Mussolini and Hitler, sought by the Allies. The internal battle must have been excruciating, the diaries disappeared, it is said that only Pucci was told where they were. Having failed in his attempt to save Galeazzo's life, Emilio accompanied Edda to Switzerland where his children were waiting for him (the price for his silence), but on his return to Italy he was arrested by the Gestapo and taken to Milan's San Vittore prison where he was interrogated and tortured at length without ever, either then or in the future, revealing where they had been hidden.
When he was released from prison, he was transferred and treated in hospital in Lugano, I imagine as a gesture of gratitude from his friend, where he remained until the end of the war. Far from home and his family, he found work as a ski instructor in Zermatt, from where he moved to Sestriere in 1947. We know the rest. I told you that his life seems to be longer than the others!
Nicoletta de Menna who has always been passionate about modern and contemporary history, and whose leitmotif is clothes and changes in costume.
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