After four uneven runway shows, Massimo Giorgetti and Emilio Pucci parted company in April. The label’s Spring presentation was held in its Via Amedei headquarters with Laudomia Pucci, Emilio’s daughter, greeting guests: “It’s everything you’d pack for a holiday,” she said. The search process for a new creative director is ongoing, but there’s no official timeline for an announcement. So the transitional design team has gone back to the brand’s roots, as transitional teams tend to do at times like this. Pucci founded his house in 1947, designing revolutionary-for-the-era stretch skiwear and swimwear that was snapped up by the Zermatt and Capri sets. It soon came to be synonymous with the jet-setting European good life, and vintage pieces remain highly collectible.
The clothes and accessories in the three vignettes set up today were designed for Capri and other seaside destinations. In room one, a terry cloth robe and matching towel (worn turban-style) were printed in an orange-red swirling motif, reminiscent of, but not actually pulled from, the archive. You wouldn’t guess it, but all the prints here were new, which is a testimony to the enduring potential of this house. In other bids for currency, terry caftans in the same vibrant pattern were bejeweled (the designation between day and evening continues to blur), while silk twill pieces like tunics, capri pants, and a roomy all-in-one were laser perforated with dots. Room two was pool blue, and the third was devoted to pastel hues. A zip-up jacket in a buttery shade of yellow featured a chest patch inspired by an unremembered ’50s-era Emilio original; “Capri Sport,” it said. There are doubtless many more of those sorts of treasures waiting to be discovered. Now, onto the task of finding the right creative mind for the job.