I am not a Pucci person, readers.
Like Peter Max or Lily Pulitzer, Florentine designer Emilio Pucci was endlessly knocked-off in the 60's and 70's. My hunch is that most people my age have seen too many cheap imitations over the decades to appreciate the originals.
Can't you just smell the double-knit polyester?
Yet, I saw this vintage 1971 Pucci Vogue Couturier pattern on eBay last night for just $2 and had to grab it. Please don't think it was just the price -- it wasn't (entirely). I want to make those wrap pants for me! (Mine will be shorter.)
Talk about "nothing new under the sun." They remind me a lot of Thai fisherman pants -- or, even more, like one of the wrap pants patterns from that Chinese pattern book I bought, Flatness Folded. But better. Very Miyake too.
Pucci produced a lot of sewing patterns for Vogue. Some were cool and sophisticated. Others are straight out of the 1973 remake of "Lost Horizon."
Marilyn Monroe was a Pucci person and even requested that she be buried in her favorite Pucci dress (a solid green). I don't think most of us associate him with her (or vice versa).
More classic Pucci...
In closing, does the sight of swirly, psychedelic, magenta/sky-blue/lime-green patterns give you vertigo, or do you genuinely like this stuff?
Are you a Pucci person?
Have a great day, everybody!
(You can read about Emilio Pucci here.)
Posts
I forget about Marilyn's love of Pucci! And I am so so SO a Pucci person. Love it.
ReplyDeleteLOVE. IT. ALL!
ReplyDeleteI love the look and the colors but could never wear most of these prints myself....except for that really nice smaller print on Marilyn.
ReplyDeleteYes, yes, I love it!
ReplyDeleteWell, before Peter, I would have rolled my eyes . . . but that was before.
ReplyDeleteNow that I have been . . . Peterized . . . there is no telling what I might like.
Not I!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, sister.
DeletePeter, I am amazed by your productivity and precision. So far this year I have produced a blouse, a knit top, and muslined a jacket. How are you able to produce so much good work. How do you organize/prepare? I am so slow...it takes me an entire morning to alter my pattern and hours more to cut out and mark my muslin. I would love to read a post about how you do it. Thanks for the inspiring and lol blog.
ReplyDeletePucci, Gucci, Fiorucci. You love it or you hate it. I appreciate Pucci but I only want to wear it in small doses, i.e. a scarf. Now I could possibly rock a classic 60s shift if it was tonal. And maybe that girdle. I'd prefer some classic , original, Lily Pulitzer. The modern Lily stuff is AWFUL. My 2 cents.
ReplyDeleteI usually like Pucci....but those are some of the ugliest examples I've ever seen....
ReplyDeletePeter-- Those pants are really going to be fun. I saw some wonderful fabric at Michael Levine that I would use if it were me. I like the Pucci fabric on a Wilhemnia (divine lady) type, but best for me are the designs in solid fabric. LIke Tillie"s Mom Iwold love to see you work, your output is lush. I picture you speeded up like A Bewitched episode. xooxoxoxoxoxxo
ReplyDeleteI LOVE it. Of course, I wear jeans and a blue shirt for 40 hours a week, so I am probably colour-starved when I do get to wear real clothes. Just for the record, I didn't love it the first time around when I was young. But now that I am older and eccentric, I love it.
ReplyDeleteSome genuine Pucci has me salivating, but not all of it. And certainly not the icky bad polyester knock offs that seem to have scarred me in my childhood.
ReplyDeleteThat girdle is really something! My favorite though is the ski jacket/hat combo with the ski jumper attached to the hat. ;)
ReplyDeleteI remember having a bridesmaid dress that very closely resembled the dresses in the third photo in 1972. I wore it for special occasions for the next couple of years. I loved it. I also had some cotton bell bottoms with a very Pucci-esque print (black and yellow flowers) that I remember wearing in 1969. I love these loud proud colors, they're a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteWhen I retire, I plan to switch from gray suits and sensible neckties to Pucci caftans.
ReplyDeleteAnd that hostess/evening gown with the black top is basically what my mother wore to go out in for much of my later childhood...
She wore THAT to IHOP? ;)
DeleteI had a friend who bought a Pucci dress - wool jersey with his signature print - not too bold, in the 1960s, she was fortunate that it still fit her when she was in her late 70s'. Despite the moth holes - she wore it with pride and looked great doing so.
ReplyDeleteTotally Pucci. The genuine fabrics are silk, lovely, light and fluid. What a master color and pattern.
ReplyDeleteI am a Pucci person. I love love love it. I want to be draped in lovely Pucci all day and night.
ReplyDeleteI love it, but not on me.
ReplyDeleteNo Pucci for me - wore enough knockoff poly crap in the 70s. But the 70s "musical" version of Lost Horizon? One of my favorite bad movies!
ReplyDeleteLove Pucci! And those wrap pants too!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love the prints, they are me all over! Not that I would ever wear anything that daring, only admire it. I'm not a fan of the wrap-around trousers though.
ReplyDeleteThere's an art to combining several colours in a coherent and pleasing way in a print, something that appears to have been killed off by a couple of generations of Comme Les Garcons black and Ralph Lauren preppie. Thank God for Pucci, and for Kaffe Fassett. and all others who make our lives more interesting.
ReplyDeleteI am not a Pucci person, but that girdle is great!! I would love to wear that!
ReplyDeleteI do. I love it. I think it's so joyful.
ReplyDeleteLove Pucci. Had a dancing dress years ago that was so fun to wear and made me feel glamorous. It was a slightly smaller print than your examples, but it was my go-to dress for so many happy times. I wore it with high heeled patent leather sandals that wore out before the dress did!
ReplyDeleteHow did Marilyn 'request' to be buried in her favorite green dress if she was dead??????????? I think her half-sister Bernice chose the funeral outfit.
ReplyDeleteWell, she did ask her make up man, Whitey Snyder, to do her make-up should she pre-decease him. But you may be right about the dress...
DeleteI'm old enough to remember the 60s Pucci and it was fresh and innovative. I loved it. Unfortunately it was copied so much it became cheap and commonplace. Back then I was so a Pucci person!! Thanks for the memory Peter!
ReplyDeleteI love the the swirly bright Pucci prints and I love palazzo pants. Would I wear the prints no. Would I wear Palazzo pants yes!
ReplyDeleteThe Pucci contingent near me back then, lived in Grosse Pointe, MI and was nearly uniformly lime green and hot pink. They were like the team colors. I remember when the dresses and scarves started showing up in the thrift stores. Pink and green pucci.
ReplyDeleteI don't like Pucci prints. Possibly because it reminds me of the smell of polyester. Haha.
ReplyDeletePucci prints just overwhelm me. When you're under 5 feet and the print takes over a third of your body ... there's just nothing cute about that. I do however, LOVE the wrap pants pattern. I was just as fashion week and there was a designer that had a similar version. G.I.A.N - http://www.gianpadillasuarez.com/. Her website hasn't been updated, but why buy when you can make?
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ReplyDeleteI survived the bad knockoff era and I think it ruined me for anything Pucci-esque unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteSure, there's a sense of the garment wearing the wearer (and fashion for its own sake) but the prints themselves are beautiful and he does great things with proportion. Seeing these outfits walking down a sidewalk in 2014 would be startling but is that Pucci's fault or ours? Then again, the haute couture of my childhood was Ungaro so that probably explains why I find Pucci interesting and often beautiful.
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