Does a heritage label need a creative director? More and more these days, fashion executives are saying no. There’s the Azzedine Alaïa example. And there’s also Emilio Pucci, which has been creative director–less for at least a year. The visionary founder set the codes for color, swirling print, and sportif decades ago. Now, according to the design team lead, the internal thinking is focused on “locating the future of Pucci.”
Like its past, the house’s future appears to be “on holiday.” Spring 2019 is a collection of destination clothes, with a crucial difference: the addition of unisex pieces like asymmetrically cut button-downs and boxy tanks men can shop, too. (A recent capsule collection of men’s pieces was well-received enough for the project to continue.) Asymmetry informed much of the collection via the foulard drape of a billowy shirt or an inset splice of pleats down one side of a chemisier dress; the silhouettes were easy and away from the body, just like you want them to be in hot places. Pleats were important, too, and a little tricky in the form of palazzo pants worn under bike short–tight bottoms. But, of course, the big story was prints. The design team’s innovations included bicolor patterns and placement prints; both techniques registered as lower key than the house’s typical multicolor, all-over swirling motifs. That was more than made up for elsewhere with naive embroideries of colorful beads.
