Make beauty your constant ideal

Transcription

1 Make beauty your constant ideal At the age of just 26, Roberto Capucci had already designed innovative fashion fusing nature and geometry, when Christian Dior recognized him as the best Italian fashion designer. (Roberto Capucci quoting La Mère, 2005) The much celebrated Box Line was designed two years later and won him the coveted Filene s Young Talent Award. The way in which circular and square shapes adorn, subtly affirm and outline the silhouette made it such that fashion design would never be the same after Roberto Capucci. His work has been shown in the most important museums around the world. Capucci designated Cinzia Minghetti as the team leader of a group of young designers who have interpreted his Haute Couture aesthetic in a contemporary key. Box Line Dress (Capucci, 1958), ph Claudia Primangeli Logo thought-process from the dress Ventagli (Capucci, 1980), ph Mote Sinabel Aoki - 1 -

2 Three Little Black Dresses (Capucci, 1961) by Norman Parkinson is the iconic image chosen to represent a period that has inspired this first Fall Winter 2015 ready-to-wear collection. Garments evolve from the circle and the square into a rigorously intuitive, sensual, essential and vibrant structure. Little Black Dresses (Capucci, 1961) Norman Parkinson Ltd courtesy Norman Parkinson Archive The fabrics were exclusively engineered with innovative industrial techniques in order to replicate the sartorial handiwork of Haute Couture: pleating, patchwork, trimming The shoe collection has been manufactured in an area renowned for its excellence in luxury footwear: the Riviera del Brenta. The common element on the supply chain that collaborated on this 100 % Made in Italy collection, apart from the exclusive partnership with Italian companies, is the contemporaneity of their highly skilled craftsmanship and cutting edge industrial processes: a driving force in our enterprise Dress (Capucci, 1992), ph Mote Sinabel Aoki The Capucci FW2015 collection will be presented from February 25 th to March 27 th in our Milan showroom, Via del Vecchio Politecnico 5

3 Roberto Capucci Roberto Capucci was born in Rome on December 2nd He attended art school and Accademia di Belle Arti, where he studied with the artists Marino Mazzacurati, Marcello Avenali and Libero De Libero. In 1950 he opened his first atelier in Via Sistina and in 1951, for the first time, he showed his creations at Giovanni Battista Giorgini s villa in Florence; Giorgini is considered the talent scout of Italian High Fashion, the inventor of Made in Italy. At 26, he was considered the best Italian fashion designer, particularly appreciated by Christian Dior, and in 1958 he created the Linea a Scatola (Box Line), a stylistic revolution. In 1958 he received the Boston Fashion Award (Filene s Young Talent Design Award) as the best fashion creator for his Box Line innovative design, along with Pierre Cardin and James Galanos. In the 1961 Paris fashion shows, he was welcomed with enthusiasm by French critics. For this reason he opened his atelier at n 4 Rue Cambon in Paris in In 1968 he returned to his Italian atelier in Via Gregoriana (Rome), where he showed his collections during the fashion calendar organized by the Camera Nazionale dell Alta Moda. In the same year, he designed costumes for Silvana Mangano and Terence Stamp who were starring in Pier Paolo Pasolini s film Teorema

4 In July 1970, he showed his work in a museum for the first time, in Rome at the Nymphaeum of the Museo di Arte Etrusca at Villa Giulia, with a collection that revolutionized fashion tradition, with models wearing boots with low heels without wearing make up and hair styling. He began experimenting with the inclusion of decorative, rigid and structural elements, in a mix of rich and poor materials; precious fabrics, stones and straw. In 1980 Capucci left the Camera Nazionale della Moda and decided to show his collections off season and outside of an institutional context, and only when he was ready. A boon season began for him with the exhibition Roberto Capucci l Arte Nella Moda - Volume, Colore e Metodo shown in 1990 at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence and in the most important museums of the world, including Kunsthistorisches Museum (Wien), Nordiska Museet (Stockholm), Puskin Museum (Moscow), Museum of Art of Philadelphia, Reggia di Venaria Reale (Turin) and was met with great critical praise and audience approval. In 1995 he was invited to show his creations at the Esposizione Internazionale di Arti Visive, at La Biennale di Venezia; the edition from the decade 1985 to In 2005, in collaboration with the Associazione Civita, he created the Fondazione Roberto Capucci to preserve his archive of historical dresses, signed illustrations, original drawings, a complete press book and a large media library. In 2007 he opened the Fondazione Roberto Capucci Museum in Florence at Villa Bardini, where exhibitions and intense teaching activities are organized. Roberto Capucci is considered one of the most important designers of the XXth Century

5 FONDAZIONE ROBERTO CAPUCCI Roberto Capucci In onore della Bellezza, Teatro Olimpico, Palazzo Farnese, Parma 1996 Founded on September 15th 2005, along with the Associazione Civita, the Roberto Capucci Foundation is promoted by Centro di Firenze per la Moda Italiana, Fondazione Museo del Tessuto di Prato, Fondazione Edoardo Garrone and Fundaciòn Santander. The Fondazione preserves and augments the value of the Capucci Archive that represents its heritage and consists of an extensive collection, started in 1951, that is constantly updated; in May 2008 it was recognized by the Sovrintendenza Archivistica del Lazio MIBACT as of of notable historical interest. The Archive is the essential instrument for all the activities of the Fondazione Roberto Capucci and consists of numerous items that include: 450 sculpture-dresses and high fashion creations, 500 illustrations, sketches, 20 notebooks of sketches, 150 audiovisuals, photographs and press articles. The mission of the Fondazione Roberto Capucci is to spread the knowledge of Roberto Capucci s work and to convey the characteristics of his creativity and research into style and to represent his vocation for connecting art and fashion. The aim of the Fondazione is also to support the Italian tradition of high quality craftsmanship and style refinement, with the purpose of recovering a leadership position for Italian fashion and creativity. In October 2007 the Fondazione Parchi Monumentali Bardini and Peyron, promoted by the Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, conceded an exhibition space in the historical seat of Villa Bardini in Florence to the Roberto Capucci Foundation. The Foundation Museum hosts, in rotation, small exhibitions on a selection of the high fashion creations of the Archive, focusing on different themes: style, colour, shape. Roberto Capucci Creare per Vivere, Museo Pushkin, Moscow

6 Mozart-Experiment Aufklarung, Museo Albertina, Vienna 2006 In June 2008 the High Know-how Training Program was launched: a series of workshops on the manufacturing techniques of highly skilled craftsmen, that took place in the beautiful setting of Villa Bardini. The aim was to reach young people and to give them the means to enhance their creativity while helping to develop their abilities and promoting their admission into the job market. In April 2012, in cooperation with the Associazione Moda e Modi, the Fondazione Roberto Capucci launched the Roberto Capucci per i giovani designer competition. Oltre (a)gli abiti il design prende una nuova piega, that took place in April 2013 in Milan during the Salone del Mobile, with the awards presentation held at Palazzo Reale and the exhibition/event at Palazzo Morando ( The Fondazione Roberto Capucci has been invited by the most important museums of the world to exhibit the creations of the Master: in June 2011 the Philadelphia Museum of Art hosted the anthology Roberto Capucci. Art into Fashion ; in 2012 the exhibition Roberto Capucci e l antico. Omaggio alla Vittoria Alata was hosted in the Museo di Santa Giulia in Brescia recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage; from 2013 to 2014 the Reggia di Venaria Reale hosted the exhibition Roberto Capucci. La ricerca della regalità. The Saint Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music realized the exhibition Style on Stage. Art of Elegance with two monumental Capucci creations for Norma and Vedova Allegra, in the context of The Diaghilev Festival. The MAXXI Museum of Rome is currently hosting six historic creations of Capucci in the collective exhibition Bellissima. L Italia dell Alta Moda

7 Atelier Roma, 1972 ROBERTO CAPUCCI atelier In l950 Roberto Capucci began his professional activity in Rome and opened an atelier in Via Sistina 15 where he realized the 5 dresses presented in l95l in Florence at the Villa of Marchese Giorgini. He obtained great success and in 1955 he opened a bigger new atelier in Via Gregoriana 56. Over the years the atelier quickly developed and the number of dressmakers grew from 5 to 90, engaged in the realization of the collections and in the production of breathtaking gowns for private clients. In l956 he received public encouragement from Christian Dior. The link to Dior became stronger when Roberto Capucci opened a second atelier in Paris in 1962 in Rue Cambon and employed one of Dior s prémières, Madame Germaine. In 1968 he returned permanently to Italy to his creative centre in Via Gregoriana 56 and he started to show his collections during the fashion calendar of Camera Nazionale dell Alta Moda. He also begun to design for the roman aristocracy as well. The main characteristic of his Haute Couture atelier was its aseptic athmosphere: white, silent, with big mirrors to emphasize the colors and the sillhouettes of his creations. Each dress was hand made from the manufacture to the embroideries, this still happens today in his fascinating new location in Foro Traiano 1/a, in the heart of Rome, opened in Here we find both Roberto Capucci s atelier and the Fondazione with its Historical Archive

8 Press Francesco Ladisa M press@capucci.eu