Emilio Pucci, a high-fashion innovator whose brightly colored designs in silk clothed such celebrities as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Grace Kelly for over 40 years, has died at the age of 78.
Pucci died Sunday morning of a heart attack, Pier Gabriele Bulli, a hospital director, said Monday.Pucci's silk pajama pants, inspired by the vivid colors of the island of Capri, were worn by celebrities. His status-symbol belts, scarves, handbags and shirts sold briskly in New York and other world capitals.
Pucci's popularity peaked in the 1960s, but his work has been rediscovered with the re-emergence of festive colors in the high-fashion clothing world.
Born in Naples and educated in Florence and Reed College in Portland, Ore., where he earned a social sciences degree, Pucci was an Italian air force pilot in World War II and served until 1952.
He made his designing debut in 1951 when Italian high-fashion was still in its infancy.
His fashion house, Palazzo Pucci in Florence, is now headed by his daughter, Laudomia Pucci, who did her own designs for the house for the first time last year.
Pucci served in parliament for two terms starting in 1963. A lifelong ambition to be mayor of Florence was never realized.