True to her Italian roots, Camille Miceli called Emilio Pucci’s winter collection La Piazzetta, hinting not only at Capri’s famous handkerchief-sized hotspot, but also at the notion of the city square as part of Italian culture, a space open to communality and connections. These values and the idea of la famiglia, another established building block of the Italian lifestyle, are the drivers Miceli is embracing to charge Pucci with a bold new energy. For her second collection for the brand, Miceli drew from her own family and circle of friends – a motley crew of characters, talents, and generations – generously sprinkling it with her abundant joie de vivre. “My Pucci woman is an urban bohemian, she loves to travel, she’s in constant movement,” she says. “It’s the mother, it’s the daughter, it’s the grandma – as long as they enjoy life, they’re part of the community of Pucci.” Festive, bold, and colorful, the collection keeps all the label’s fundamentals alive, while introducing a few novelty notes to the mix. Knitwear was a new addition, offered in a rainbow-colored capelet with an undulating hem, or in a fringed hand-knitted, patch-worked poncho worked with horizontal intarsia. Miceli said that she was “happy to have achieved something that is Pucci, without being logo-ed by the prints in a big way.” She also used black as a thread throughout the collection, using prints as pipings, side inserts, foulard ribbons, and fringes, while widening the color palette with “some more options that reflect its character without being necessarily full-on printed.” Fringes are a Miceli signature, as they “bring frivolity to the garment,” she explained. They also give the feel of the energy and glamour that is the quintessential combination of the Pucci-Miceli connection. The Pucci woman, whatever her age, is on the move, going around in activewear-inspired zippered blousons in shiny recycled nylon printed and tiny pleated printed kilts, and weathering rainy days in protective hooded waxed ponchos boasting the lysergic Marmo pattern.

Parties are the Pucci woman’s natural habitat, and Miceli wants her to shine under the discoballs. Leggings with disco ruffles are a tribute to the effervescent charm of Raffaella Carrà, an Italian showgirl famous in the ’80s who reminds the designer of her teenage years. Miceli’s affinity for the label’s high-style bohemia was conveyed in long printed chiffon dresses with ruffled décolletages, in more sinuous, body-con options wrapped in stoles, or else in leopard-printed satiny numbers – a new introduction as “Emilio only did zebra at the time,” said Miceli. Bravissimo!

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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