Biography
More an artist than a couturier. The Forbidden Fashion (2019) by Ottavio Rosati written with Adriana Mulassano, shows his dresses in the Museums of Art of Munich, Wien, Paris, New York, Washington, Berlin, Luxembourg, Stockholm, Madrid, Strasbourg, Moscow, London, Lisbon, Firenze, Saint Petersburg and other cities. Capucci is indifferent to industrial Prêt-a-portér and Anna Fendi considers him: "The God of Fashion, the man who invented Fashion in Italy, the protagonist of Hollywood del Tevere". Capucci did classical studies in Liceo Artistico in Rome. The short The Birth of Italian Fashion: Roberto Capucci, Art into Fashion (2011) (Philadelphia Art Museum) tells how, after the war, when Capucci was 18 years old Marchese Giorgini introduced him in the beginning of Italian Fashion. At the age of 26, Vogue defined him as "The best creator of Italian Fashion". He received the "Fashion Oscar" with Pierre Cardin and James Galanos. In 1958 he created the Box line, a true revolution from a technical and stylistic point of view. In 1961 he was enthusiastically received by the French critics for the Paris fashion shows in the calendar of the Chambre Syndacale de la Mode which led him to open his own studio in 1962 at no. 4 of Rue Cambon in Paris, receiving positive criticism from the press and the honor of being the first Italian artist who was asked to "sign" a product. In 1968 he returns to Rome, in the atelier of via Gregoriana and presents his collections in the fashion calendar organized by la Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana. He also designes the costumes of Silvana Mangano and Terence Stamp for the film Teorema (1968) by Pier Paolo Pasolini. His admiration for the actress and the director is such that in the future he will refuse to collaborate on other films. In July 1970 he presents for the first time his work in a museum, in Rome in the Nymphaeum of the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia, with a collection that revolutionizes the tradition of fashion shows: models wearing low-heeled boots, without make-up and with natural hair. In these years his experimentation includes rich and poor materials, precious fabrics, stones and straw. In 1980 Capucci resigned from Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana and decided to present his collections as artist's personal, realizing them without following deadlines or calendars. In 1980, after his international success, Capucci announced that he wanted to get out of the classic fashion system based on défilés and would only present his creations in Artistic Exhibitions. In 2013 his exhibition "La Ricerca della Regalità" at the Venaria Reale of Turin, described in the short Le code le ali (2013), attracted more than 20.000 visitors just in two days during the Easter period. According to many critics, Capucci is an excellence of the Italian twentieth century: a famous couturier who has managed to realize his dreams in reality without bending to the commercial fashion system. His exhibition season begins in 1990 with the exhibition "Roberto Capucci the Art in Fashion - Volume, Color and Method" in Palazzo Strozzi in Florence and is received with great praise both by critics and by the public in the most important museums in the world, including the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna), the Nordiska Museet (Stockholm), the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Palace of Venaria Reale (Turin). In 1995 he was invited to present his creations at the International Exhibition of Visual Arts, the Venice Biennale, in the centenary edition 1895-1995. In 2005, with the Civita Association, he created the Roberto Capucci Foundation with the aim of preserving his archive which consists of 439 historical clothes, 500 signed illustrations, 22,000 original drawings, a complete press review and a large photo library and media library. In 2007 the Roberto Capucci Foundation Museum opens in the Villa Bardini in Florence, in which exhibitions and intense educational activities are organized. In April 2012, in collaboration with the Milan Fashion and Fashion Association, the Competition "Roberto Capucci for young designers" with the aim of promoting and giving visibility to young talents, ended in April 2013 with the award ceremony at Palazzo Reale di Milano of the winners. In July 2018, l'Istituto Luce Cinecittà e Alta Roma present with success the world premiere of the docufilm The Forbidden Fashion (2019). Among the testimonials: Adriana Mulassano, Princess Maria Pace Odescalchi, Raina Kabaivanska, Eike Schmidt, Pier Luigi Luisi, Silvia Ferino, Sidival Fila and Anna Fendi. The movie shows for the first time the animation of imaginary drawings of characters for theater by Capucci just exposed to the Uffizi in Florence in the exhibition 'Capucci Dionisiaco'. Due to the sudden absence of Capucci (who discovered that a pop TV star was also present in Cinecittà for Alta Roma) Istituto Luce organizes a paradoxical second preview, ten months later with a new version of the film, at the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome, where the Maestro receives a standing ovation. It is one of the proofs of how eccentric but nice Capucci's life is from the psychological and cultural point. His creations are protected by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage as true Works of Art of the Italian historical heritage and are managed by the Capucci Foundation, directed by Enrico Minio, that contains also his drawings for movie and theater. Among the numerous Honors received by Roberto Capucci throughout the world, the Honorary Degree in Design awarded by the Rector of the University 'La Sapienza' in Rome and La Lupa Capitolina from the City of Rome. Capucci is recognized as one of the greatest designers of the twentieth century and has dressed great celebrities from the world of cinema, theater and, especially in ceremonies, many women of international high society. Among the most famous clothes is the one worn by Rita Levi-Montalcini on the occasion of the awarding of the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1986. In 2019 Ottavio Rosati began to write a movie about a character inspired by Capucci but interpreted by an actor, who, unlike "Phantom Thread" (2017) by Paul Thomas Anderson, has the Capucci's true creations as costumes. As well as dozens of catalogs on his exhibitions, the book "Lo Scultore della Seta" by Gian Luca Bauzano (2019, Marsilio) is a perfect synthesis of Master's history and describes his passage from Fashion to Art.
