"IT'S EXPERIENTIAL LUXURY"

Fashion icon LAUDOMIA PUCCI speaks to BAZAAR INDIA about the family's MUSEUM, her legendary FATHER and the brand's QUIRKY collaborations.

- VINOD NAIR

Harper’s Bazaar: Let’s first talk about your father, the legendary Emilio Pucci. How did he get into the fashion business?

Laudomia Pucci: We have to go back to the post-war period. My father was in Switzerland, recuperating from war injuries, and to make a living he was teaching the two things he knew how to do: teach Italian and give skiing lessons [he had been in the Italian Olympic team since 1934 and participated in the 1936 winter Olympic Games]. He had designed a ski suit for himself inspired by the army uniform he used to wear and added some elastic under the foot to allow the body to move while skiing. One day he met on the slopes of Zermatt a young American lady who was lost and helped her climb down the mountain. They became friends and a few days later she was wearing his suit on the slopes. By pure chance, a photographer—Toni Frissel—happened to be there and took a picture of the young lady. This picture ended up on the desk of Diana Vreeland, at that time the editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar US. I do not know how she managed to call my father [in 1947] and over the phone she asked him to design a ski collection that would be produced by an American firm in Portland and sold at Lord and Taylor.

HB: How did he visualise such unique colours and geometric prints that make Pucci collections very distinctive from the rest?

LP: His mother was from Naples and his father had a strong Russian influence due to his mother and grandmother [both Russians from St Petersburg]. It has been said that the two strong references gifted him with a passion for Mediterranean colours and strong prints.

HB: How are the prints made? What is the creative as well as production process involved in this?