At the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, the cultural centre of New York University dedicated to the spread of Italian culture in the United States, is scheduled today, 13 March, the presentation of the book Emilio Pucci: The Astonishing Odyssey of a Fashion Icon (St. Martin’s Press, 2026). The volume is written by Terence Ward and Idanna Pucci, daughter of the designer, and will then be the subject of a conversation with the historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor at the same university and scholar of Italian fascism. The meeting, scheduled from 18:30 to 20:00, reconstructs the figure of Emilio Pucci, one of the most prominent names of the Italian fashion of the twentieth century.
Pucci is known above all for its brightly coloured prints and light dresses that in the 1950s and 1960s helped to define the international aesthetic associated with the “sweet life”. His brand quickly became popular with actresses and public figures, from Sophia Loren to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and contributed to the global spread of the image of an elegant, modern and Mediterranean tourism. The book, however, focuses attention on a phase of its lesser-known life, preceding fashion career.
According to the reconstruction proposed by the authors, during the Second World War Pucci participated in activities of connection with the Allies and contributed to bring out from Italy documents considered relevant to Western intelligence. In that context he came into contact with diplomatic circles and figures such as Allen Dulles, who in those years directed the Office of Strategic Services, the US intelligence service precursor of the CIA. This story, often left on the margins of his career, is one of the central elements of the book.
After the war, Pucci returned to Florence, a city where his family had been documented for centuries and that he was out of the conflict with serious damage. There he began his business in the fashion industry, contributing to the international growth of Italian style in the post-war period. Between the Fifties and Sixties Italy gradually became one of the main global fashion centers, next to Paris and New York, and the work of designers like Pucci helped build the image of Made in Italy as a cultural phenomenon as well as commercial.
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