A Tailor Starts a Revolution?

1 — Quiet colors add to elegance, and cutting down on flowers and ornament gives a dress more dignity and refinement.

2 — The woman alone must choose the color that suits her.

3 — Accessories — such as the bag, the gloves, and the shoes — add to elegance when they harmonize with the dress.

4 — The hat makes up what is lacking in a woman's elegance; it should be simple when the dress is ornamented, and the reverse likewise...

His name is «Roberto Capucci»... and his countrymen call him «il ragazzo», that is, the boy... He is a shy young Italian who has lately astonished the world with the modern designs with which he has burst upon the world of women's fashions...

«Roberto» began his work six years ago, and he remained obscure until a few weeks past, when he held in Florence a showing of fashions for the spring and summer of 1956...

Then the pens of the journalists took him up with admiration, and the leading figures of the art counted him a rival to «Dior»...

«Capucci» is drawing up a new plan for women's fashions, by which he means to wipe out the lines that cover the charm of femininity and kill the graces of the body... He wants to give back to women's fashions their elegance and chic, and of this he says: «I want woman to look simply a woman»... nor does he mean by this to ruin the husbands' treasury... And so the shy tailor proves that Italy is not only the home of beauties such as Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren and Silvana Mangano; the mind is led also to seek out the tailors who bring out beauty and charm in Italy...

It will not be long before Italy begins to compete with France in elegance... but the leader of the vanguard among Italy's fashion designers today will remain «Capucci»...

He goes on with his talk, saying: How it used to pain me to see a woman in an unbecoming dress! And I would offer my observations to my classmates when the look of their clothes did not please me... My mother wanted me to become a sculptor, but I informed her that she should help me open a fashion house...

The young tailor faced a great problem when the big stores in «Florence» closed their doors against his showing; but the wealthy Count «Giorgini», the man who directs the movement of Italian fashion from behind the curtain, understood «Capucci's» gift, and gave a banquet for him in his elegant palace, and amid the glasses of champagne the Count presented «the boy» to the world...

As for the secret of «Capucci's» fashions, it is the touch of femininity he imparts to every dress, whether the tailors will or no... Then too, he believes that any woman can look elegant — elegance does not depend on a «bundle» of bones... And the finest of his creations are the evening gowns, in which a woman looks like a flower with its petals opened...

«Capucci» lives alone, in a kind of seclusion, and inspiration descends upon him as he walks of a morning among the streets and statues of Rome; and he believes that it is man who creates fashions, with the help of a woman's opinions... for he alone sees the enchanting lines, because he does not wear them. And the tailor lays down three rules for elegance:

1 — Quiet colors add to elegance, just as cutting down on flowers and ornament gives a dress more dignity... and refinement... And the woman alone must choose the color that suits her...

2 — Accessories, such as the bag, the shoes, and the gloves, add to elegance when they harmonize with the dress.

3 — The hat makes up what is lacking in a woman's elegance... and it should be simple when the dress is ornamented, and the reverse likewise...

It is worth mentioning that most of «Capucci's» customers are of the aristocratic ladies of Italy...