Adorable Story #84: Emilio Pucci (Part 1)

Thinker. Tailor. Soldier. Spy.

1947: Emilio Pucci with a model showcasing one of his ski suit creations — Photo courtesy of Emilio Pucci

Marquis Emilio Pucci, born into Italian nobility, became a renowned fashion designer celebrated for his vibrant prints and innovative sportswear. Educated in Italy and the USA, he served as an aviator during WWII, which shaped his future endeavors. After the war, he launched a successful fashion career, opening his first boutique in Capri and gaining celebrity clientele including Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy. His life was marked by creativity, aristocratic connections, and a lasting impact on the fashion world.

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Table of Contents: Early Life and Education / Georgia / Reed College / WWII: Ethiopia and Malta / Edda Ciano / Ciano’s Diaries / Escape to Switzerland / Gestapo / Career Beginnings / Rise to Fame / Later Life / Did you know?

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Emilio Pucci, the legendary Italian fashion designer, was born on November 20th, 1914, in Naples, Italy.

Emilio came from an illustrious Florentine family, tracing its noble origins back to the 14th century. His full name was: Don Emilio Pucci, Marquis of Barsento (referring to the family’s land on the Adriatic Sea).

His father, Marchese Orazio Pucci, was a prominent figure in Italian society, known for his contributions to agriculture and civic life. Emilio’s mother, Baroness Maria Cristina Pavoncelli, came from a lineage of Italian aristocrats, blending cultural sophistication with a strong sense of tradition.

Emilio’s home address was at Palazzo Pucci, in Via dei Pucci n. 6, in Florence, built for his family nearly 1,000 years ago.

According to the legend, Palazzo Pucci contains a Botticelli painting showing the use of forks for eating food, adopted for the first time in Florence by the Pucci family. It is said that once Catherine de’ Medici followed through and used a fork as well, the fad spread all over Europe.

Early Life and Education

After spending his childhood and teenage years in Florence, Emilio moved to Milan to study at “La Statale” University.

At 18 years old Emilio was already an accomplished athlete and an expert skier who represented Italy in the 1932 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid (albeit he did not compete).

Georgia

In 1935, he felt stifled by the snobbish and over-controlled life he was forced to live by his traditional and strict parents, and traveled halfway around the world: he finally enrolled at the University of Georgia, where he decided to study cotton agriculture and became a member of the Demosthenian Literary Society.

Emilio soon realised that cotton agriculture was not a particularly stimulating subject for him and the environment at the University of Georgia did not provide much of the intellectual inspiration he was looking for: at the beginning of WWII, he also found himself completely cut off from his family’s bank accounts as a result of sanctions against Italy and the growing chaos in Europe.

Emilio sought refuge in skiing and went on a trip to the slopes of Mount Hood, Oregon.

Reed College

In September 1936, on his way back to Atlanta he stopped at the office of Dexter Keezer, president of Reed College, to ask for help.

It was an unlikely meeting: Emilio was a young, old-money Italian aristocrat who found himself suddenly broke (despite his aristocratic pedigree, he had no funds for his education due to Italian exchange restrictions stemming from its war against Ethiopia).

Keezer, on the other hand, was a seasoned, self-made man from Massachusetts, a World War I veteran, former reporter, economist, and New Deal Democrat.

On top of that, the two men could have very probably guessed that their countries had a strong chance of opposing each other in a possible upcoming war: their meeting came as Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany were strengthening their military alliance and right after the 1936 Berlin Olympics.