On 5 December, within the framework of Palazzina Appiani, the beautiful building created under the Napoleonic domination, and now manage by FAI in the heart of Milan, Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d’Arte introduced the book “Lo scultore della seta. Roberto Capucci, il sublime nella moda” (The Sculptor of Silk. Roberto Capucci, the Sublime in Fashion), written by Gian Luca Bauzano, an authoritative journalist from Corriere della Sera, published by Marsilio and curated by Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d’Arte.
The hall was packed with guests who enthusiastically welcomed Roberto Capucci, an unquestionable fashion and savoir-faire Master, who, over 70 years' activity, created no mere clothes but authentic sculptures, extraordinary, always surprising and innovative textile architectures to be worn.
Maestro Capucci, along with Gian Luca Bauzano and Alberto Cavalli, recalled his story from the early days in villa Giorgini and throughout the 1950s, up to the garments he had specially created for great Hollywood stars and princesses, until he decided to withdraw from the fashion system and make real works of art out of his clothes, when, in 1995, he was invited to showcase them at the Venice Biennale.
His creativity still emerges dramatically, especially in his drawings, which, although not so famous as his clothes and mostly unpublished, have been partly collected in this book, testifying to Capucci's passion for shapes, colours, materials and his still unfailing inventiveness and productivity.
Thanks to the punctual, attentive and passionate reconstruction by Gian Luca Bauzano, a long-time friend and close connoisseur of Capucci's work and life, the volume conjures up a powerful portrait of a real, largely unprecedented, “Living Treasure”, in the poetical definition the Japanese language created for great Art Masters.
