Italian designer Emilio Pucci revolutionized the world of fashion from the 1950s on, introducing bold prints, bright colors and glamorous gowns that flattered the female figure.

Jacqueline Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe were among his jet-setting clientele, as was Scottsdale resident Olgivanna Wright, wife of architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

Pucci's clothes were “soft, very natural,” says Dennita Sewell, fashion design curator at the Phoenix Art Museum. “They showed off the lines of a woman's body, and they were very sensual in that way, very sexy.”

Now you can see 30 of his original designs in the new Pucci exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum. The pieces come from the museum's permanent collection and are on loan from collectors, including the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation at Taliesin West in Scottsdale.

Geometric-patterned scarves in purples, blues and greens greet you at the entrance. Flowing blouses and dresses, silk capri pants, unique bikinis and matching round sunglasses and petite purses are on display.
optional cut: please include if space allows The exhibit features one of the Braniff Airlines uniforms Pucci designed for stewardesses in the 1970s — a smart, short sea-green dress and matching scarf.

Pucci's designs made the Braniff hostesses famous, granting them modellike status in the industry, Sewell says. end cut Pucci was born in 1914 to a prominent Florence family and was a bomber in World War II. He was accidentally “discovered” while skiing in the Alps in 1947, when an editor for Harper's Bazaar magazine photographed him and a friend wearing ski suits Pucci had designed.