Born into one of the oldest noble families of Florence, Emilio Pucci was a fascinating character who led many extraordinary lives: sportsman, military hero, adventurer, politician, bon viveur and above all a visionary fashion designer who was completely ahead of his time.
At the age of 17 he attended the 1932 Winter Olympics in the USA as part of the Italian ski team, although he did not compete. A few years later he won a full scholarship to Reed College in exchange for developing a college ski team, also designing their outfits and ski runs at Mount Hood, Oregon, where there has been a ski lift named in his honour since 1956. He went on to complete a doctorate in political science in Florence.
Pucci at the Timberline Lodge, Mount Hood, Oregon - coincidentally the location for Stanley Kubrick's The Shining
During World War II his life took an extraordinary turn. He joined the Italian Air Force in 1938 as a bomber pilot, gained the rank of Captain and was decorated for valour. During the war he became close to Mussolini’s daughter Edda and played a key role in a plan to save the life of her husband, Mussolini's former Foreign Minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano, who was on trial for his part in a plot to remove Mussolini from power in 1943. The plan involved delivering some of Ciano's diaries (which were highly critical of Mussolini) to the Gestapo so that they could be bartered for Ciano's life.
Marquis Emilio Pucci with Countess Edda Ciano, Mussolini's daughter, 1939. Note the matching ski outfits!
When the scheme failed, Pucci drove Edda to the Swiss border on 9 January 1944 and ensured her escape. Before departing, Edda wrote pleas to Hitler and Mussolini, and Pucci delivered these letters to an intermediary. He then attempted to flee to Switzerland himself, but he was arrested and transported to San Vittore prison in Milan, where he was tortured by the Gestapo. Pucci managed to get away to Switzerland, where he remained until the end of the war. Ciano was executed by firing squad in 1944.
Pucci had not intended to pursue a career in fashion. In 1947 he was skiing in Switzerland with a female friend, for whom he had designed a ski outfit. The glamorous couple were snapped by a photographer working for Harper’s Bazaar and ended up on the desk of Diana Vreeland, and a fashion legend was born.
Pucci was the first person to design a one-piece ski suit. His sleek designs, using the latest technologies in stretch fabrics, caused a sensation, and he received several offers from American manufacturers to produce them. Instead, he left the Air Force and set up a tiny boutique in the fashionable resort of Canzone del Mare on Capri, which was becoming a favourite destination of the international jet set, when Americans and Europeans flocked to the glamour of the Italy of Cinecittà and La Dolce Vita.
Emilio Pucci in Capri, 1950
Initially, he used his knowledge of stretch fabrics to produce a swimwear line, but he soon moved on to other items such as brightly coloured, boldly patterned blouses, wrinkle-free printed silk dresses and silk scarves. Pucci presented his collection in the first fashion shows in Italy in 1950, working from the family palazzo in Florence, and opened a boutique in Rome. The ethos was about freedom, femininity, modernity and joy, expressed in bright, optimistic colours and rhythmic geometric prints.
Marilyn Monroe wearing silk top and matching Capri Pants
By the 1950s, Pucci was achieving international recognition, and he hit the big time when Marylin Monroe became a fan – when she died in 1962 she was buried in a Pucci dress. Since the 1960s his creations have been worn by the rich and famous from Bardot and Loren to Jackie Kennedy, and later Amy Winehouse. It is a testament to the timelessness of his creativity that both Monroe and Winehouse wore the same design, 45 years apart.
Pucci's Ceramiche design, worn by Marilyn Monroe in 1962, and Amy Winehouse in 2007.
Pucci created an incredibly light and stretchy jersey that could be folded into a small handbag – no ironing required. In 1965 he was commissioned by Braniff Airways, designing the uniforms for the hostesses, pilots and ground crew – including a "bubble helmet" – a clear plastic hood worn by flight attendants between terminal building and aircraft to protect their hairdos from rain. In 1971 he designed the logo for the Apollo 15 moon mission, although the colours were changed to red, white and blue.
Pucci's uniforms for Braniff International, 1965
He lived and worked for most of his life at the Pucci Palace in Florence. Aside from earning the name “The Prince of Prints” he had a political career with the Liberal Party. His clothes are instantly recognised around the world for their bold, witty prints, flattering fabrics and riot of intense kaleidoscopic colours as well as their distinctive message: fun, practical sporty and innovative, reflecting the genius of the man himself.
Emilio Pucci at work in the Palazzo Pucci
Further reading: Pucci by Vanessa Friedman and Alessandra Arezzi Boza
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Sandy Powell is one of the most highly acclaimed film costume designers working today and has garnered more Oscar nominations for costume design than any other living designer. Her many credits include Orlando, The Favourite, Velvet Goldmine, Carol, The Irishman and Gangs of New York. She is also one of the coolest and most stylish people on the planet.
Sandy has generously donated over 50 items from her personal collection, including red carpet dresses, vintage and designer items, as well as one-off handmade pieces, shoes and accessories.
She says: “My work takes me away on location for months at a time. Lockdown forced me to spend time at home for the first time in years, it gave me the opportunity to breathe and think and catch up with my life. I realised I was fortunate to be in a secure position to both enjoy and benefit from this but at the same time I was becoming aware of rise in cases of domestic abuse and how awful it must be for some people to be trapped at home. Like many people I decided to clear out some of the many clothes I'd accumulated over the years to raise some money and a friend mentioned Menage Modern Vintage. I had known Chiara for years and she agreed to donate all proceeds of the sales to help to tackle domestic abuse. We chose Refuge as the best way to help people in these terrifying situations.”
Sandy began her career in film with Caravaggio, the start of a long collaboration with Derek Jarman. Earlier this year she wore a white suit to the BAFTA and Oscar parties, collecting signatures from celebrities including Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie and Leonardo di Caprio. The suit was auctioned to raise funds to save Prospect Cottage, Jarman’s wonderful cottage and garden on the beach at Dungeness.
Refuge is a charity which offers vital help and support to people suffering from many kinds of domestic abuse, both through the National Domestic Abuse Helpline and through offering shelter and helping people rebuild their lives. Their services include refuges, independent advocacy, community outreach projects, and culturally specific services. For more information click here.
100% of proceeds from Sandy's collection will be donated to this important charity. Click here to view the collection.
Major Awards
15 Academy Award nominations, three wins: Shakespeare in Love (1998), The Aviator (2004), The Young Victoria (2009)
15 BAFTA nominations, three wins: Velvet Goldmine (1998), The Young Victoria (2009), The Favourite (2018)
For more on Sandy Powell we recommend this great interview in W magazine, with incredible photos by Tim Walker: https://www.wmagazine.com/story/the-irishman-costume-designer-sandy-powell/
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L to R: Diane von Furstenberg in the 1970s with you know who; vintage 1990s DVF leopard wrap at Menage Modern Vintage; leopard print dress from this week's Zara
Have you ever looked at a glossy fashion spread or browsed in upmarket shops and remembered that you have a similar item in your wardrobe, even your mother’s - grandmother’s - wardrobe? Fashion has always loved a revival, but our constant need for novelty, with retail outlets changing their stock every few weeks to stay ahead, means that these cycles are getting faster and faster.
It is no secret that the stratospheric success of Zara over the past decade is due to a revolutionary business model which reduces the fashion cycle by minimising the time between what the customer wants (the latest trend), to its availability in the stores. In fact, while most brands restock once a season, Zara restocks with new designs as often as twice a week. Other high street retailers such as H&M and Uniqlo are catching up and now, according to the analyst Masoud Golsorkhi, quoted in the New York Times, “pretty much half of the high-end fashion companies" — Prada and Louis Vuitton, for example — "make four to six collections instead of two each year. That's absolutely because of Zara" [1]. Incidentally, Zara’s founder, Amancio Ortega, was ranked the second richest man in the world in 2016,with a net worth of more than Warren Buffet.
What does this mean for the planet? Zara's holding company, Inditex, which also owns Zara Home, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Stradivarius, Pull & Bear and Uterqüe, now makes over 840 million garments a year and has 7422 stores in 96 markets, according to their website [5]. Each of those garments requires the same amount of resources and labour as their high-end or slow fashion equivalent: a T-shirt that costs £2 or a T-shirt that costs £200 uses the same human labour, chemical pollution and natural resources - 2,700 litres of water per T-shirt, according to the WWF [2]. That's what the average Briton uses over an 18 day period. Next time you want another new T-shirt, ask yourself if you would be willing to go 18 days without water for it. And with the cost and bother of dry cleaning and washing, many things - up to 30% - are thrown away after a couple of wears. That's 30% of an estimated 80 billion garments produced globally every year. According to WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme), in the UK alone, 350,000 tonnes of unwanted clothing – worth an estimated £140 million – is sent to landfill each year in the UK [3].
One of my favourite games, particularly during Fashion Week, is watching the latest styles on the catwalk, the influencers and the street and comparing them to the old friends in the archive. Here are a few parallels that came out of a 5 minute search on a major fashion website this week:
Spoiler: the ones on the right have zero negative environmental impact.
The fashion cycle is becoming locked into ever-decreasing circles and ever-increasing speeds. And yet so much of what we think of as novelty has been seen before, an old idea given new life. A cycle of ideas, recycled.
What if we try to see fashion as a circle, rather than a cycle? The fashion circle is a key concept in the idea of a sustainable, circular economy; in which a product is designed to last in society for as long as possible with little to no waste. It is made with minimal resources and environmentally friendly materials. When the owner is finished with the product, it should be reused, rebuilt or recycled into a new product to keep it flowing through society. According to online platform Circular Fashion [4], there are three positive steps that should be taken by consumers:
As consumers we have power to change the cycle, by choosing conscientiously, and looking after what we have. Ask yourself, what does it cost? And then ask, what does it cost the planet? Buy less, choose well, make it last. Buy clothes second hand if possible; wear them, look after them, rest them for a while in the wardrobe; and if you really don't want it any more give someone else the chance to love it. Change fashion cycle into fashion recycle. Today's cast off is tomorrow's must-have.
Sources
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Menage Modern Vintage is delighted to present a selection of wonderful pieces from the personal collection of award-winning film and TV Costume Designer Annie Symons.
Always a wayward child, Annie began her career in costume at the age of 14, skipping off school to work in the local theatre. After graduating in Film & Costume Design from the National Film & TV School, Annie designed several shorts and features for the British Film Institute early in her career with some of the UK’s most innovative and creative directors, including Derek Jarman and John Maybury.
Annie was the Costume Designer on the first feature film I produced, John Maybury's Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon, in 1997, in which she brought to life the colourful characters who haunted the drinking dens of 1960s Soho.
Love is the Devil publicity still - L-R: Adrian Scarborough, Karl Johnson, Daniel Craig, Anne Lambton, Tilda Swinton, Annabel Brooks and Derek Jacobi as Francis Bacon, in the Colony Club, Soho.
"As a costume designer, for decades I have vindicated this vast collection of clothes, costume, accessories, fabrics and haberdashery as some kind of collective scrap book where the significance of each garment is not just to do with memory but with the future. A constant possibility that a detail may trigger a thought process when searching for inspiration for new design projects."
In a moment of poignant serendipity, I ran into Annie a few months ago, after a gap of 20 years, at the funeral of a mutual friend. I later went to visit her in her studio, in the middle of an epic clear-out… and she invited me to take my pick for the website. Says Annie: " I was moving again for the third time in two years and I realized a cull of my chattels could be liberating. I happily handed over the custody of some of my treasured garments. This was the right time and the right place and the right person."
We are thrilled to present a selection of these items for sale at Menage Modern Vintage. Among them, a paisley blouse made by Annie’s mother in the 1960s, worn by Tilda Swinton when she played Soho doyenne Muriel Belcher in Love is the Devil; here she is wearing it in a publicity still. (At the time she was six months pregnant with twins, artfully hidden behind the large handbag).
Tilda Swinton as Muriel Belcher in Love is the Devil, and the vintage paisley wrap-over blouse she wore, for sale at MMV
There are garments going back years, some of them from Annie’s own wardrobe, including some rare Vivienne Westwood items, an Alexander McQueen Highwayman coat, and the incredible Pleats Please dress she wore when she won a BAFTA, designed by Chinese artist Cai Guo Qiang, famous for his ethereally beautiful installations of fire and smoke, such as this extraordinary work:
The wonderful serpentine dress (below left) is one of a series that the artist created for Issey Miyake, making marks on the fabric with gunpowder, his preferred artistic medium. A dress from the same collection sold for £20,000 at Kerry Taylor Auctions in June 2015, and others have been exhibited in art galleries around the world.
Annie's Pleats Please Divine Serpentine Dress by Cai Guo Qiang, Guest Artist, Series 4, and his "Dragon or Rainbow Serpent Dress" from the same series.
Also in the archive are gems from the fifties onwards, many of them handmade, some of them inherited from her mother. There are incredible finds: corsets, tailored suits, a tribal wedding dress, 1960s minis and one-off pieces made for the stage and screen.
One of my personal favourites is a 1930s style crepe de chine tea dress made for The Woman in Black 2, starring Phoebe Fox. The dress still has the wardrobe label attached with the actress’s name and scenes, and features prominently in the press stills for the film. It was used in an underwater scene and arrived complete with weights sewn into the hem.
Publicity Still from The Woman in Black 2, starring Phoebe Fox
Referring to an upcoming Instagram campaign, Annie continues "I am particularly excited about Chiara’s new venture of turning iconic pieces of clothing into iconic photographic images."
Annie is currently designing for film and TV and also for commercials. She has an impressive array of awards to her name, including a BAFTA, an Emmy and several RTS awards. Liberated from her chattels and her "unwieldy three-dimensional notebook", Annie has now started drawing and painting again after almost 40 years. "And in any case I can always buy and make more clothes..."
Annie's work can be seen at www.anniesymonscostumedesign.com
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The study went into the ultra-deep trenches of the Pacific Ocean, over an area of thousands of kilometres, and all the way down to the deepest point in the Mariana Trench. They tested samples of crustaceans living there at a depth of over 10 km and found that every single specimen examined – 100% - contained fragments of plastic including microfibres such as Rayon, Nylon, and Lyocell, used in textiles among other products. The fibres could actually be seen in the stomach contents as they were being removed
The inevitable conclusion was that “it is highly likely there are no marine ecosystems left that are not impacted by anthropogenic debris.”
Depressing beyond words.
In this story I am going to share some facts about the dark side of the fashion industry and the clothes we wear. Much of it will be familiar but it’s worth reminding ourselves of the stark reality, as the statistics are shocking.
There's a saying that you can predict next season's hot colours by the colour of the rivers in China.
"Feel amazing for £8" ... or better for free?
The clothing industry is a complicated business involving long and varied supply chains of production: raw materials, textile manufacture, design, construction, shipping, retail, use and ultimately disposal of the garment. We haven’t even started on the socio-economic issues and the appalling conditions and exploitation suffered by the poorly-paid workforce. But what is clear is that we have to act now to do whatever we can to slow down the damage. It’s a no-brainer.
Think carefully before you buy anything. Choose clothes that you won’t tire of, treat them well, wear them for years. Choose what to keep and what you can pass on: sell, give, donate, just don’t throw it away. Forget fashions - they come around so fast anyway you’re never really in or out – as Coco Chanel famously said, “Fashion fades, only style endures.”
There is a growing movement for slow fashion and a number of ways you can get involved. A great way to get you thinking and acting is Fashion Revolution's downloadable handbook, How to be a Fashion Revolutionary. It is full of resources and information about the industry, as well as events and inspiration.
Next time, I’ll write a life-affirming, fascinating story about a much-loved garment, I promise.
Sources:
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/news/2017/11/plasticocean/
John Thackera How to Thrive in the Next Economy. (I urge it on you, it’s very readable, full of startling thoughts, and surprisingly optimistic.)
http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/valuing-our-clothes-the-cost-of-uk-fashion_WRAP.pdf#page=4
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases/2016/06/over-three-billion-clothes-left-unworn-in-the-nations-wardrobes-survey-finds
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This skirt danced with James Bond. It’s by Vivienne Westwood and I bought it in 1992 or 3, when I was working in film production and being a girl about town. Later I made a film with Daniel Craig … we danced at one point. I remember I was wearing the skirt. I don’t know what he wore.
Throughout my adult life I have accumulated and hoarded a large, eclectic wardrobe, with each key garment representing a different episode of a personal history. The (already) vintage Chanel suit that my future husband bought me from the legendary Didier Ludot on our first trip to Paris - who knows who wore it before me?
The Rifat Ozbek suit of lights which was a birthday present and which is one of only two in existence – the other belonging to Grace Jones...
... my Ozbek wedding dress, obtained from Rifat’s studio the night before I got married. Then there’s my mother’s seventies wardrobe, including a vintage Lanvin evening gown, relics from her youthful days….
Along with many other cherished garments, I’ve kept them and worn them and danced in them and loved them like old friends - and now I’ve decided to let them go. After over 30 years of hoarding I have come to the conclusion that these beautiful creations need to be worn and loved and danced in by someone else.
It is not easy to say goodbye to things with such a personal attachment. It has made me think about how we invest emotionally in objects, and how we calculate their value in today’s over commodified world.
I recently attended a fascinating talk by Dr Rebecca Arnold, Senior Lecturer in History of Dress & Textiles at the Courtauld Institute, and Dal Chodha of Archivist, which looked inside people’s wardrobes and examined what our clothes say about us, processes of selection and accumulation and questions of what value our garments have in a disposable culture.
One of the most interesting photographs was from the Hussein Chalayan show A/W 00.
On a stage set, a sleek modernist living room – chairs, a coffee table, a television. Four models wearing grey shift dresses approach the chairs, remove the covers and then convert them into dresses before our eyes. The last model steps into the middle of the table, lifts it up and transforms it into a skirt. The show was inspired by refugees of war, people forced to flee their homes, carrying their worldly possessions on their backs. That was the year 2000.
What do you choose to keep and what do you leave behind? Or in my case, pass on? I’ve been handing out individual pieces to friends for years, not without a few regrets. But there is a great freedom in the idea of letting everything go. It’s genuinely exciting to think the clothes will go on have another life, with someone else. Who knows, they may get to dance with James Bond…
Since I embarked on this project of letting go, I have realised that many others share my experience of the emotional and philosophical aspects of the process, as well as my concerns about environmental and consumerist issues in the world of fashion which have been another big factor in my decision.
And that is the ethos behind Menage Modern Vintage. The sustainability aspect will be discussed in another post, but for now MMV would love to hear the secret lives of your clothes. Do you have anything languishing in your wardrobe with a story to tell?
Please leave a comment below, or email us with a story and a photograph.
If you are interested in seeing the Chalayan show, click here. It's a work of art.
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A few months ago, during a torrential downpour, my friend Sophie appeared on my doorstep with what looked like an enormous heap of wet rags and dumped them on my kitchen table. On closer inspection they turned out to be her mother's cherished wardrobe archive dating from the 1970s.
Sifting through them I was particularly thrilled and intrigued by a number of exquisite garments by Catherine Buckley. Until then I had never heard of the British Boutique designers, or Catherine Buckley, and the clothes and fabrics were so unusual I had to find out more. So I emailed her and she has been kind enough to agree to help identify and date the clothes and to give us a bit of background.
‘I started 1963 in a basement with £59 and 5 old rusty dress rails, experimented on and off with old fabrics in the 60’s and in 1970 I purchased 1 1/2 tons of Jacquard fabric in Scotland dated 1880 to 1930, from an abandoned warehouse, and embarked on a collection of patchwork creations sold to Liberty’s, Harrods , Fortnum & Masons and across the world.
‘In between I made Elizabeth Taylor’s 40th Birthday dress and Purdey’s outfits in the New Avengers Tv series etc etc . Did I start the adventure into Antique fabrics that is now so in vogue? Quite possibly and probably yes '
Publicity Still from the New Avengers, c. 1976
Liz in a Catherine Buckley patchwork creation from 1971, made from antique 1890 jacquard fabric, with Richard Burton. Fabulous as ever.
Over the years from c.1987 up until her retirement in 2003, Catherine dressed countless romantic brides in her exquisite trademark style.
Catherine is producing a catalogue of her dresses and of the sensational fabrics she found in the abandoned warehouse nearly 50 years ago. Follow this link to her website for the full gallery of images:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catherinebuckleylondon
Some weeks later, I went to photograph the beautiful Isadora modelling the outfits at my friend Miranda’s house in Wiltshire – in another torrential downpour, as it happens. We rapturously held up the clothes and I shared with them my excitement at finding Catherine still working at her catalogues. Miranda dug out her own wedding album from 1990 and to my utter delight she was dressed in Catherine Buckley…. A lace tabard covering her noticeably pregnant belly.
Here are some photos of Isadora, in Sophie’s mother’s clothes by Catherine Buckley, at Miranda’s house, taken on a rainy day in June 2017. Click on photo for link to online listing.
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