Is it any wonder, asks Josh Patner, his signature fashions now speak Italian for the world?
By Josh Patner Who can think of Italy without picturing a glamorous woman sipping a Campari and soda in a café at dusk, the bright sunlight teasing glitter from the deep, dark waters around Capri, or young lovers straddling a speeding motorino? And who can think of Italian style without thinking of Emilio Pucci? Wouldn’t that pretty lady be less pretty—and less Italian—without her Pucci print? It is impossible—even dreary—to imagine Italy without the great Florentine designer’s kaleidoscopically printed silk jersey tunics that have defined The Good Life since the 1950s. You can no sooner separate Pucci from Italian chic than you could the Campari from the soda. American women, of course, have long loved Pucci. Though not the first to discover the near instant élan of a Pucci wardrobe—Marchese Emilio Pucci di Barsento opened his first boutique in Capri in 1950 after selling to Lord & Taylor on the recommendation of Diana Vreeland—once they owned a piece, obsession set in. Jacqueline Sus