Roberto Capucci: Art into Fashion

assets/Udstillingsbilleder/_resampled/SetWidth207-Capucci.jpg

From the Berlin Collection, 1992. Copyright: Philadelphia Museum of Art

Italian couturier and artist Roberto Capucci (born 1930) is revered by contemporary fashion designers for his innovative silhouettes and masterful use of color and materials. This exhibition-featuring over eighty works, fascinating archival material including film clips, and images captured by the world's leading fashion photographers-will be the first survey of his work in the United States.

Capucci refers to his work as "a study in form," and he draws from a multitude of sources including art, architecture, and nature for inspiration. At age twenty-one, he presented his first designs at the second collective Italian fashion show of 1951 in Florence. By 1956 the international press had declared him Italy's best designer, lauding his "vigor, imagination, and uninhibited originality." From 1962 Capucci presented his collections in Paris, returning in 1968 to Rome, where he continued his experimentation with unusual materials such as raffia, wire, and stones. He refused to compromise his vision to commercial concerns, and, after resigning from Italian couture in 1980, he presented one collection a year, each in a different city including Tokyo, New York, and Berlin. Since 1992, he has conceived and exhibited unique sculptural dresses, including a landmark series at the 1995 Venice Biennale.

This exhibition presents Capucci's iconic early designs such as the revolutionary box silhouette from 1958, luminescent evening dresses that were presented in the dark in Paris in 1965, the first of his sculpture dresses, a Doric column dress from 1978, as well as dramatic works from the 1980s and early 1990s that reveal his innovative use of pleating and unique explorations of color and form. It will also feature his most recent series of eight dress sculptures, Return to Origins: Homage to Florence, from 2007.

Organizers
This exhibition is organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Fondazione Roberto Capucci.

Sponsors
This exhibition is funded in part by The Women's Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Curator
Dilys Blum, The Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland Senior Curator of Costumes and Textiles

Location
Dorrance Special Exhibition Galleries, first floor