Don Emilio Pucci di Barsento, Marchese di Barsento, was born in 1914 in Naples to one of the oldest noble families of Florence. He studied at the University of Milan, took graduate degrees at Reed College in Oregon and at the University of Florence, skied for the Italian Olympic team in 1932, and flew for the Regia Aeronautica in the Second World War — in which he was involved, at the war's end, in the attempt to smuggle Galeazzo Ciano's diaries to the Allies.

The Photograph

His fashion career began in 1947, accidentally, when Harper's Bazaar published a photograph of a woman skiing in Zermatt in a skin-tight stretch-wool suit Pucci had designed for a friend. The editor, Diana Vreeland, telephoned Pucci at his Florence palazzo and asked him to design a full collection. He did. The collection was sold through Lord & Taylor in New York and sold out.

The Prints

Pucci opened an atelier on the isle of Capri in 1949, which served as both shop and design studio. His signature silk-jersey prints — saturated psychedelic patterns in fuchsia, turquoise, acid green, and yellow, derived from medieval Palio banners and Sicilian tile patterns — were on the market by 1950. The jersey was stretchy, packable, wrinkle-resistant, and flattering. He called it "a Florentine fabric for the jet age."

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Anything that moves is good. Anything that does not move is unforgivable. — Emilio Pucci

The Jet Set

By 1960 Pucci was the uniform of the international jet set: Jackie Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe (who was buried in a Pucci dress by her request), Gina Lollobrigida, Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren, and most of the European minor aristocracy. He also designed the Braniff International Airways flight-attendant uniforms (1965), the Apollo 15 mission patches (1971), and the livery of Qantas (1974).

Successors

Pucci died in Florence in 1992. His daughter Laudomia Pucci ran the house through the 1990s. In 2000 Louis Vuitton acquired 67% of the business and installed a succession of creative directors — Julio Espada, Christian Lacroix, Matthew Williamson, Peter Dundas, Massimo Giorgetti — before returning the house to Laudomia's direction in 2017. Camille Miceli succeeded her in 2021.