Capucci is an Italian fashion maison named after the famous and eclectic designer Roberto Capucci: the father of the brand.
He was born in Rome the 2nd of December 1930. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts where studied with the masters Marino Mazzacurati, Marcello Avenali and Libero De Libero.
In 1950 he opened his first atelier in Via Sistina, and one year later presented his creation with an event that decreeted his succes and marked the turning point in the history of Italian fashion:indeed, in 1951 Giovan Battista Giorgini, the Italian marquise and Purchasing Director of some important American wharehouses, held a fashion show- the first- with the main prestigious italian brands, promoting in this way the Italian fashion abroad; and this is the reason why he is considered as the father of the Made in Italy as we know it today.
When Roberto was just 26, he was regarded as the best Italian fashion designer, and particurarly valued by influentil figures who brought epochal changes in the world of fashion: we are talking about people just as Christian Dior, one of the Haute Couture'fathers.
An experimenter, a lovers of volumes and geometries under the influence of art and nature, he is famous for his dress "Nove Gonne" (1956), realized with nine skirts in taffeta inspired to the concentric circles formed when you make ripples on the water.
He was honored by the "Boston Fashion Award" in 1958 for his groundbreacking collection "Box Line" that marked a stylistic revolution in contrast to the trends of that period.
The research of shapes and volumes, of a new femininity were the key of his great success.
When in 1961 he was welcommed with enthusiasm by the French critics, decided to open a second atelier in Paris in the famous Rue Cambon. The Parisian years marked a further change in his creations that became more complex: optical effects that reflected the Pop Art and new unusual materials like plastic, plexiglass, metal and hi-tech fibres.
In 1968 went back to Italy and his artistic field testing superpassed the ordinary thanks to the use of structured and decorative elements in a mix between prestigious and poor fabrics such as raffia and straw.
In the same year he realized the dresses for Silvana Mangano and Terence Stamp to play in the movie "Teorema" directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, while in 1970 one of his collections altered all the fashion traditions: his models walked tha runway wearing flat boots without make up and hair styling.
The 1980 was the year during which he separated himself from the instituzionalized fashion system: Capucci decided not to show his creations inside the scheduled agenda of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion, and established himself when and where hold his fashion show, all around the world, freeing himself from the diktat imposed by the world of fashion: that was "art into fashion".
In 1955 was invited to unveil his creations at the International Exhibition of Visive Arts during the Venice Biennale, and more than fifty years later, in 2007, the Museum of the Roberto Capucci Foundation wan inaugurated in Florence, in Villa Bardini.
The foundation was born just two years before, with the aim of preserving the stylistic memory of one of the main designers of the XX century.
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