It’s clearly no longer enough to simply dress the inhabitants of a city as glamorous as Florence. Forget painting the town red, Emilio is painting it Pucci

It’s clearly no longer enough to simply dress the inhabitants of a city as glamorous as Florence; now Emilio Pucci, the granddaddy of capri pants, is dressing the city itself. Painting the town red? We’re painting the town Pucci.Last week saw Florence’s Baptistery dressed to the nines in the Maison’s iconic ‘Battistero’ print; a faithful-to-size rendition of the architectural design adorning the walls of the very building it was inspired by. The kaleidoscopic installation conceals the marble façade of the basilica in a symbolic rendering of the designer’s strong ties to the city – with an aristocratic Florentine lineage stretching back to the Italian Renaissance, the Marquise Pucci drew inspiration for his prints from centuries of Italian history and art; no cheap imitations here – this is serious stuff.

A unique meeting between art, fashion and architecture in Florence, the #MonumentalPucci installation reflects the house’s great heritage on a vast scale; one that is in stark contrast to little Barbie in her Pucci Braniff Airways uniform back in ’65. With the grand marble Baptistery’s transformation into pop-art spectacle, it seems that Pucci loves a contrast – just look at the fashion house’s most recent A/W RTW collection, which saw vintage pink & brown Pucci prints overlaid with rock-chick silver studs and cow hide. Every unique image of Pucci’s inimitable style only serves to demonstrate the Maison’s continuing ability to celebrate popular culture whilst staying true to their Mediterranean roots.

We wanted an invite to the exclusive cocktail party held at the Palazzo Pucci itself after the unveiling. In the spirit of fashion-meets-art, guests were able to discover the creative techniques employed by the ‘Prince of Prints’ himself through a special experience entitled ‘design the dream’. Afterwards, exclusively at the Emilio Pucci boutique in Florence, the archival 1957 print scarf was on sale in several colour variations – now that is dreamy.

Words: Florence Trott