Emilio Pucci

Emilio Pucci, Marchese di Barsento, was a Florentine aristocrat whose fashion career began by accident: in 1947, while on leave from the Italian air force, a Harper's Bazaar photographer noticed the ski outfit he had designed for himself and commissioned him to design women's ski clothes. That commission became the foundation of his label. Pucci opened his first boutique on Capri in 1950, and the house staged its first fashion show in Florence in 1951, anchoring the brand between his native city and the resort towns favored by the postwar jet set. His signature became bold, swirling geometric prints in saturated color, earning him the nickname "The Prince of Prints" in the international press. Through the 1950s and 60s the house dressed a clientele that included Jackie Kennedy, Sophia Loren and Marilyn Monroe, and later Madonna in the 1980s, built on light, easy-fitting silk jersey pieces rather than traditional formal couture. Emilio Pucci died in 1992; his daughter, Laudomia Pucci, continued to guide the house's design direction afterward. In 2000, the LVMH group acquired a 67% stake in the company, bringing the maison under the same umbrella as other major European luxury houses while it continued to operate out of Florence.