Italy: Fashion, Style and National Identityunderstanding of how women dress. They were also forums for freer
experimentation, in material, production and cut.’^34
The most frequently cited example of such experimentation in the con-
temporary press is Emilio Pucci’s casual jersey printwear. It is generally
accepted that Pucci was the first and most successful Italian designer to work
in the boutique sphere in the two decades after the Second World War. With
great fervour, ex-employee Carla Strini, claims that ‘Pucci didn’t just create
Italian sportswear, he created sportswear, period. Before this, sportswear had
meant a combination of slacks or skirts with tops and blouses. Pucci linked
it with sport and made it fun.’^35 Strini cites Pucci’s ski-pants, his first garment,
in support of this. She described previous ski-pants as ‘unflattering and baggy
garments’, which made ‘women look like a bag rolling downhill’, and
explained that Pucci created ‘tight flattering ones, which women could look
good in’. This new approach to shape was combined with unusual colours
and patterns, and unusual fabrics such as light silk jersey, which were easy
to wear and care for.
Pucci’s signature garments were narrow capri pants, loose long square-cut
shirts (figure 11.2) and pared-down shirt-dresses, all in unusual brightly
coloured prints.^36 They were seen as ‘spare, sexy, liberating’ and ‘relaxed
and sleek, comfy and neat, well-fitting and flattering’.^37 The relaxed sexuality
of Pucci’s designs was perhaps the most important factor in their success.
Certainly, the clothes and the lifestyle for which they were designed, were
very different from the restrictive and formal designs of contemporary Paris
fashion. Whilst it must be remembered that these garments were very
expensive (and were beyond the reach of all but the wealthy), for the
international jet set, Pucci’s easy-to-pack designs became symbols of their
lifestyle and exclusivity. The fashion editor of US magazine Life summed it
up in 1951, when she wrote that ‘Pucci has made it chic to be casual’.^38 This
concept is crucial in the development of Italian stylistic identity.
It is difficult to make an assessment of boutique style in this period through
analysis of surviving garments, because so few survive in museum collections.
However, there are three important examples. The first is an example of
boutique fashion by a couturier (figure 11.3).^39 It is a semi-fitted day coat
- Ibid, p. 487.
- Carla Strini in interview, near Florence, 18.10.95.
- Bath Costume Museum, number BATMCI.42.98. Label reads ‘Made in Italy, Emilio,
Capri SRL, Florence’. - Kennedy, Shirley, Pucci: a Renaissance in Fashion, New York: Abbeville Press, p. 8.
- Kirkland, Sally, ‘Italy Gets Dressed Up’,Life, 20.8.51, p. 104.
- Fontana archive, Rome, number n.31/F. Label reads ‘Fontana Alta Moda Pronta’.