<\/p>\n
\n\tWith an abundance of charm, Pucci\u2019s\u00a0artistic director\u00a0Camille Miceli personified \u201cInstinct, Imagination & the Pucci Renaissance\u201d during the discussion at the WWD Apparel and Retail CEO Summit with international editor\u00a0Miles Socha.<\/p>\n
When LVMH Mo\u00ebt Hennessy Louis Vuitton called her with\u00a0\u201cthis\u00a0mission,\u201d she said\u00a0it was essential to look at the Pucci brand in a different way, which led to more of a see now, buy now business. \u00a0Although that\u00a0approach\u00a0is not typically used by the group, in this post-pandemic world\u00a0and in light of\u00a0\u201call that we are facing today,\u201d\u00a0Miceli said that having something \u201cso joyful and so positive\u201d makes \u201cyou want to embrace that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fact that \u201cwomen feel beautiful and happy\u201d in the clothes is \u201cwhat we want at the end of the day,\u201d she said. Explaining how\u00a0Pucci \u201cbroke the luxury mold\u201d with the see now, buy now model\u00a0and its strategies about shows, experiences and amping up distributing of its collections more in resort locations, Miceli said, \u201cMore and more I really want to put Pucci in everyday life. I mean, today I\u2019m wearing a suit and I\u2019m not going to wear that on the beach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others are also following the mindset that Pucci can be everyday wear, including in the city. In line with that thinking, the company opened a store in Houston earlier this year, \u201cwhich is not a resort place,\u201d as she pointed out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Acknowledging how the company\u2019s founder Emilio Pucci opened his first store in Capri, where he was \u201cdressing up all of these glamorous women,\u201d she said that initially gave Pucci a reputation for being \u201ca very summer brand.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cMore and more, it is getting into the brains of people that it is another yearlong brand. Thank god,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
While the founder was\u00a0also known for skiwear, \u201cpeople forgot,\u201d so Pucci reminded them once she arrived at the house by collaborating with the French ski brand\u00a0Fusalp on a technical collection. She said, \u201cI like collaborating with people, who have knowledge [about something] that we don\u2019t have. In fact, it worked very well, because I wanted to bring back the history. It\u2019s always important when you work for a brand to do that. I\u2019m here to serve Emilio Pucci. Of course, I have my taste. But I like molding myself into the brand and also bringing my part. \u00a0But at first, the star is Emilio [Pucci].\u201d<\/p>\n
As for how\u00a0intuition\u00a0and instinct guide her designs, Miceli said some of that comes down to the fact that she is\u00a0a woman who is designing for women. In fittings, she thinks about\u00a0the\u00a0woman, her shape, and how to amplify her beauty. Prints are naturally paramount to the process, with patterns being taken from the archives and then redrawn. Emilio Pucci was known for drawing by hand. Miceli said, \u201cFor Pucci, imperfection is perfection, because, you know, you feel like the human side where like he\u2019s shaking [at times], and the color is not perfect and all that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Designing with generations of shoppers in mind, she said her 80-year-old friend wore the brand and\u00a0was featured in a Pucci look book. \u201cSo when I design the collection, I think about all those women and different communities and different kinds of\u00a0passionate\u00a0people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Asked about her biggest surprise,\u00a0Miceli spoke of \u201cthe richness\u201d of the prints in the archives, and how many of them were drawn by the founder. She said, \u201cI\u2019m in love with the psychedelic ones. I wonder what he was taking, because when you see those things, you\u2019re\u00a0like tripping just by looking at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tRespectful as she is of Emilio Pucci\u2019s work, she said the shapes were quite simple and he used a lot of jersey, \u00a0which isn\u2019t always flattering to the hips. \u201cSo you need to move on and work with fabrics that are more now, and that are more flattering,\u201d Miceli said.<\/p>\n
\n\tAsked what compelled her to introduce games, pool noodles, pillows, dog beds and other more novel items, she said, \u201cPucci is about a lifestyle. He used to live very well. And for me, the \u2018Bon Vive\u2019 is something like that. If I can try to teach people how to live, where to go, blah, blah, blah, and how to spend your free time, I\u2019m very happy about that. So, I thought immediately, \u2018OK, let\u2019s do a backgammon [game], and playing cards.\u2019 Now we did some glasses, and we did a carafe with the charbon to clean the water, because I\u2019m obsessed by water and the lack of water\u2026and one day we\u2019ll do the house maybe.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tMiceli shared some snapshots of some of her prior posts including\u00a0starting out with Karl Lagerfeld at a very young age. \u201cVery lucky\u201d\u00a0that Lagerfeld liked her, she said, \u201cYou know what he was like. You could be just thrown out the next day. I stayed eight years, which was very long at the time in the \u201990s.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tRecalling how after a newspaper article in that no-logo era declared that the \u201cChanel bag is over,\u201d Miceli said he gave her a sketch of a beautiful Chanel bag with \u201cChanel forever\u201d and told her to order hundreds of them in jersey in many colors that were later given to runway show guests. \u201cSo, the room of the show was full of colors of the Chanel bag. So the Chanel bag was not over,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\n\tCalling Lagerfeld\u00a0\u201cthe king of marketing,\u201d who did not stop working, she said they shared lots of very nice times. The designer also loved telling jokes in French, as she does too. \u201cI was not German, darling. I can\u2019t speak German. I can speak Italian, English, Spanish, but not German,\u201d Miceli said.<\/p>\n
\n\tAzzedine Ala\u00efa, whom she first met as a friend of her parents at weekly dinners when she was a child, was another close connection. \u201cI told him to take some vitamins to be able to make my wedding dress, and he did do my wedding dress. I did an internship when I was like 16. He was very hard on me. I could not sit; I had to stand up,\u201d\u00a0adding that he taught her precision down to the centimeter.<\/p>\n
\n\tShe added, \u201cHe advised me all the time, and he was pushing me. He was an incredible person. He was not letting anyone do anything\u2026he was a control freak. Probably that\u2019s why I\u2019m a bit of a control freak. Sometimes it\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miceli also chatted about her experience working in communications for the shows at Louis Vuitton under Marc Jacobs and designing jewelry and accessories at Louis Vuitton and Dior.\u00a0\u201cFor the first year, there was no collection to communicate about. So we were just sitting on the floor and thinking, \u2018Who is the Louis Vuitton woman?\u2019 Blah, blah, blah. So that was really interesting. Three years later after I had my son, I came back and I said, \u2018Listen, Marc, I love you. I love my job. The part that is creative is the show. I don\u2019t want to do the communication anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tShe continued, \u201cHe said, \u2018No problem. You\u2019re gonna be my muse.\u2019 I said, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s a bit reductive, but I can amuse you\u2026\u2019 And then one day he said, \u2018Would you design a ring for the show?\u2019 And that\u2019s how it started. And that\u2019s what I love about Marc. It\u2019s very instinctive. It\u2019s very immediate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tReferring to her run at Dior, Miceli said working with Raf\u00a0Simons was \u201creally good,\u201d\u00a0partially due to their shared love of art. Designing a tribal earring with pearls was a standout moment but one that happened naturally in the studio and that was inspired by her interest in and travels to Africa.<\/p>\n
\n\tAs for advice\u00a0for others, who might wish to spread their wings with a creative pursuit, she\u00a0said, \u201cYou always need to stay curious and with your ears and eyes open to catch anything that can you can. \u00a0At the end of the day, you\u2019re driven by passion, and we do a beautiful job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through Michel Botbol and Naomi Campbell, Miceli found her way to Pucci, which is run by a considerably smaller team than the ones at Chanel and Louis Vuitton. But that suits her just fine. Miceli said, \u201cI love to work with people. We sit around the table and we discuss and we exchange ideas. If you have like, 50 people around, you can\u2019t do that. I mean, have one designer, one assistant designer, Simone, who is my right hand, and one girl for the fabrics. And I like it that way. I like the fact that we only do two collections per year.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a small collection. It\u2019s very addictive. I don\u2019t want to waste. I hate waste, especially nowadays. We can\u2019t work like this any more.\u2026You see what\u2019s going on in Jamaica [with Hurricane Melissa]. We have to be careful, and we have to preserve that. And the fact of not producing like crazy, I prefer sold out. I love when it\u2019s sold out.\u00a0\u2018Sold-out\u2019 is my favorite word.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIn addition to sprucing up Pucci stores with help from Pierre\u00a0Passion to give each one its own flair and different merchandising, she has dressed such celebrities as Venus Williams and Beyonc\u00e9 Knowles-Carter. But seeing any woman dressed in Pucci is the biggest gift for Miceli, who likes when people share with her images of women of all ages enjoying their holiday wearing Pucci. There was even a photo of a boat that had been named Pucci.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWith all that is going on in this world,\u201d that bewildered her. \u201cNaming a boat after a brand would never come to my mind,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With an abundance of charm, Pucci\u2019s\u00a0artistic director\u00a0Camille Miceli personified \u201cInstinct, Imagination & the Pucci Renaissance\u201d during the discussion at the WWD Apparel and Retail CEO Summit with international editor\u00a0Miles Socha. When LVMH Mo\u00ebt Hennessy Louis Vuitton called her with\u00a0\u201cthis\u00a0mission,\u201d she said\u00a0it was essential to look at the Pucci brand in a different way, which led to more of a see now, buy now business. \u00a0Although that\u00a0approach\u00a0is not typically used by the group, in this post-pandemic world\u00a0and in light of\u00a0\u201call that we are facing today,\u201d\u00a0Miceli said that having something \u201cso joyful and so positive\u201d makes \u201cyou want to embrace that.\u201d\u00a0 The fact that \u201cwomen feel beautiful and happy\u201d in the clothes is \u201cwhat we want at the end of the day,\u201d she said. Explaining how\u00a0Pucci \u201cbroke the luxury mold\u201d with the see now, buy now model\u00a0and its strategies about shows, experiences and amping up distributing of its collections more in resort locations, Miceli said, \u201cMore and more I really want to put Pucci in everyday life. I mean, today I\u2019m wearing a suit and I\u2019m not going to wear that on the beach.\u201d Others are also following the mindset that Pucci can be everyday wear, including in the city. In line with that thinking, the company opened a store in Houston earlier this year, \u201cwhich is not a resort place,\u201d as she pointed out.\u00a0 Acknowledging how the company\u2019s founder Emilio Pucci opened his first store in Capri, where he was \u201cdressing up all of these glamorous women,\u201d she said that initially gave Pucci a reputation for being \u201ca very summer brand.\u201d \u201cMore and more, it is getting into the brains of people that it is another yearlong brand. Thank god,\u201d she said. While the founder was\u00a0also known for skiwear, \u201cpeople forgot,\u201d so Pucci reminded them once she arrived at the house by collaborating with the French ski brand\u00a0Fusalp on a technical collection. She said, \u201cI like collaborating with people, who have knowledge [about something] that we don\u2019t have. In fact, it worked…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8360"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}