Dress Sculptures: Art Into Fashion; Roberto Capucci

Roberto Capucci, a master of color, form, and innovative silhouettes, was one of the founders of modern Italian fashion in the early 1950s. Today, after six decades of creative achievement, he remains one of Italy’s most influential and imaginative artist-couturiers. Capucci (b. 1930) captured the attention of the international press at an early age, drawing praise from designers such as Christian Dior when he was still a teenager. His work has appealed to Italian aristocrats like the noblewoman Maria Pace Odescalchi, Italian actress Elsa Martinelli and Marilyn Monroe, Esther Williams, and Gloria Swanson. Today, Capucci fascinates and inspires contemporary designers such as Ralph Rucci, who admires Capucci’s dedication to the purity of his art. Covering his couture designs from the 1950s to his recent sculptures, Roberto Capucci: Art into Fashion, the exhibit, ends on June 5.

Timothy Rub, The George D. Widener Director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, stated: “Roberto Capucci breaks down the boundaries between art and fashion. The architectural and sculptural quality of his work, his innovative techniques and his extraordinary use of color will have exceptionally wide appeal to those interested in style and design.” The exhibit is on view through June 5th.

“Capucci is what every designer aspires to be — an artist who is true to himself,” added Dilys Blum, the Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland Senior Curator of Costume and Textiles at the Museum. “While he was considered an international ‘boy wonder’ during the 1950s, creating wonderfully exciting pieces in the aesthetic tradition associated with the work of Cristobal Balenciaga and Charles James, he ultimately chose to leave the commercial world to pursue interests that went well beyond fashion. In his work one can see the pure joy of creativity.”