Collection

Island Ideas For Italian Collection

From Dorothy Baxter, in Suva It really takes something to

impress the sophisticated palate

of a Florentine, especially a

mature ex-pilot, sportsman, man

about-town like dress designer

Marchese Emilio Pucci Di Bar sento.

BUT the natural elegance of the Chinese girls in Hawaii, Tahiti and Fiji when he saw them re cently, brought the Mediterranean maestro of la mode to a quick stop , In , fac t so impressed was the Marchese that he is thinking of en listing four or five Chinese models for his next Florence collection in duly.

“They are so feminine and graceful. I think they would be a great success” Pucci confided dur ing a brief sojourn at Suva’s Grand Pacific Hotel, in March.

Likewise Pucci’s far from un femmine Marchesa Cristina was in the mood to rave.

The Loveliest

“The Chinese girls are certainly the loveliest to look at but all the island girls have a wonderful charm about them and such friendly dis positions,’’said the willowy Marchesa relaxing in one of her husband’s deceptively simple silk jersey frocks that fetches a mere 100 dollars or so on the US market.

Actually the Puccis were island hopping not in search of girls but for ideas for his coming show—he has one in January and July each year.

“I like to get out among people and get the feel of things. You can not go on creating if you are for ever in an ivory tower” Pucci said.

And since he’s contemplating a tropical experiment—i.e. a ward robe designed specifically for torrid climes—he thought it best to mingle with the people of the islands, Hawaii, Tahiti, Fiji and later Bali and Ceylon.

While there had been several adaptations of native styles, there had never been a collection de signed specifically for the tropics.

Even the women of Brazil, the most fashion-conscious of all in the sun drenched sphere, had to malie do with what they could fossick out of collections designed for temperate zones, he said.

'Over)

Now that air travel is making the romantic-sounding but formerly far-away tropics so much more accessible Pucci thinks it is time something was done to meet the growing demand.

So that it’s quite likely his mannequins will be parading models tagged “Fiji”, “Suva”, “Papeete”, etc., before the high-fashion Press of the world at their July preview.

The Marchese certainly is high fashion. In fact his clientele is so elite that he is quite bashful about them.

“Look at the embarrassment poor Mrs. Kennedy has had because she used to get her clothes from over seas designers” sighed the Marchese without saying whether he had been one of the culprits.

But he did admit to architecting a geranium silk jersey evening dress for Queen Sirikit of Thailand, and running up a few seams for Mrs.

Henry Ford, and “many film stars”, including Sophia Loren, Paulette Goddard and Audrey Hepburn.

The 46 years old Marchese who turns out about 500 models a year, designs his own fabrics and has his own silk factory as well as calling in other local plants.

The man whose ancestors were recorded for posterity by such artists as Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci has been designing for only about 10 years but now exports to 51 countries including Australia.

Footnote: He did not say where he would recruit his Chinese mannequins if he does finally de cide on them so there could be a chancg for any comely island-born Chinese girl who happens to knock on the palace door of Palazzo Pucci, Via de Pucci 6, Florence, Italy, be tween now and July!

Marchese Emilio Pucci.