Fiorucci
Encyclopedia
Fiorucci is an Italian
fashion label founded by Elio Fiorucci in 1967. The first shop exposed Milan to the styles of Swinging London
and American classics such as the T-shirt
and jeans
. By the late 1970s and early 1980s this would be reversed, and the New York store would become famous for the fashions it introduced to the United States. Known as the "daytime Studio 54
", it attracted trendsetters from Andy Warhol
to a young Madonna
.
As a leader in the globalisation of fashion Fiorucci would scour the globe, introducing a newly affluent mass market to underground trends such as thongs from Brazil and Afghan coats. The label popularised camouflage prints and leopard-skin prints before creating the designer jean market with the invention of stretch jeans. The iconic advertising usually featured a woman's buttocks in skin-tight denim, or in one case obscured by pink fluffy handcuffs, whilst the company logo is two cheeky angels modelled after Raphael
's cherubs. However, mismanagement of the company led to receivership in 1989, and since then the brand has been dogged by legal battles over the trademarks, and several relaunches have failed to make much impact.
in bright primary colours whilst working at his father's shop. When they were featured in a local weekly fashion magazine, the galoshes caused a sensation. Following a trip to London in 1965, Elio was determined to bring Carnaby Street
fashions to Milan. He opened his first shop on Galleria Passerella in Milan on 31 May 1967 selling clothes by London designers such as Ossie Clark
and Zandra Rhodes
.
In 1968 Fiorucci looked East for inspiration, buying cheap T-shirts from India, and turning rice sacks into bags. Two years later the company set up its own manufacturing plant, and adopted the "two angels" logo created by Italo Lupi. In 1974 the company opened a huge new store on Via Torino in Milan, expanding beyond fashion to offer books, furniture and music. The new shop also had a performance area, vintage clothing market, and restaurant, and was financed by an investment from the Standa
department stores, part of the Montedison group. Meanwhile the label introduced the monokini
and thong
from Brazil, causing controversy with the topless photos used to advertise them. Glass beads from New Mexico
were another hit. In 1975 the company opened its first store overseas, on the Kings Road
in London, and launched a children's collection called Fioruccino. It brought Afghan coats to the mass market, and popularised the leopard-skin prints first created by Elsa Schiaparelli
two decades before.
, on East 59th Street
in New York, introduced the brand to American trendsetters during the disco age. Customers such as Marc Jacobs
Cher
and Terence Conran
would rub shoulders with Jackie Onassis and Lauren Bacall
, you might see drag queen Joey Arias
serving the King of Spain
,, author Douglas Coupland
absorbing the store's pop culture or Calvin Klein
and Gloria Vanderbilt
buying some jeans. In the early 1980s the Fiorucci art director was jewelry designer Maripol
, known for creating Madonna's look at the time. Other employees included Madonna's brother Christopher Ciccone, Terry Jones of i-D magazine fame and Oliviero Toscani
who shot many of the famous Benetton
adverts. and famed interior designer Jim Walrod
In May 1979 cartoon/graffiti based artist Kenny Scharf
has first solo exhibition in the New York Fiorucci, the show was called "Fiorucci Celebrates the New Wave" and featured his colorful, retro-futuristic "Estelle Series." The opening included a performance with Klaus Nomi, the new wave / opera singer.
Meanwhile, the company continued to bring new products to market, including a collection made from DuPont
's new Tyvek
fabric, and velvet slippers from China. In 1978 they were the first fashion house to license their name for a collection of sunglasses, whilst in 1981 a Disney licence led to a highly successful range of clothes emblazoned with Mickey Mouse
. Ever on the pulse of the times, Fiorucci sponsored the reunion of Simon and Garfunkel
in The Concert in Central Park
on 19 September 1981, attended by 400,000 people or more, and on the bill for their birthday party in 1983 was a then-unknown Madonna. In 1982 the company launched the first stretch jeans with Lycra, and the success of the 5-pocket "Safety" jeans was recognised three years later in a licensing deal with Wrangler Jeans
. In 1987 Fiorucci produced the Junior Gaultier line designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier, and in 1989 they went back to their roots with a deal with Vivienne Westwood
, queen of the London street scene.
The company expanded rapidly after 1978, launching new stores across the US, Europe and Asia. In 1981 Benetton
bought Montedison's 50% stake in Fiorucci, which was reduced to 33.3% in 1986 when Elio Fiorucci brought in Iranian businessman Massimo Aki Nuhi (Akinouhi) as a third partner via his holding company Aknofin. Benetton sold their remaining stake to Fiorucci and Aki Nuhi in August 1987. Despite thriving sales, the company was dogged by poor management and had had to close the New York store in 1984; Betsey Johnson
has suggested "Fiorucci was the most happening place. It never stopped being happening — it just left New York City, because I don't think New York City was happening enough by the mid-80's". Fiorucci closed down the rest of the US retail locations in 1988 after a franchise dispute, moving instead to a wholesale strategy. The company went into administration in April 1989 following a dispute over the strategic direction of the firm that had seen Elio offer to buy out Aki Nuhi.
Originally Edwin planned to launch five stores in key cities like London, but although they signed an initial deal on 4 June 1990 that was ratified that October, Edwin did not gain control of the Fiorucci assets until May 1992. In fact they would later lose the rights to the Fiorucci name in Canada on the grounds of disuse. However, one of Edwin's first acts was a deal with Coles Myer that would see 68 Fiorucci concessions in stores across Australia. They opened a new store in Piazza San Babila, Milan in early 1993, that included a variety of branded boutiques. It took them longer to get things going in North America, after a 1993 deal with Mary Ann Wheaton of Wheaton International fell through. In 1995 they licensed the rights for eyewear in the US to Swan International Optical, and then opened a US office in September 1997. However, the strategy of their licensee, Stephen Budd, to sell the brand into US department stores didn't work out so in 1999 they announced a plan to open a New York store once again. The initial plan was to open in time for Christmas 1999, but the store on lower Broadway finally opened its doors in June 2001. Commentators such as Kim Hastreiter were sceptical that it could recapture the buzz of times past, given the increased competition in mass-market clubbing gear from the likes of H&M
and The Limited.
Meanwhile the brand continued to thrive in Europe, and regained some of its former notoriety in 1995 with a poster campaign for its jeans featuring a naked woman's buttocks and pink furry handcuffs, which became instant bestsellers. In 1999 it launched a successful perfume, followed by a second, Fiorucci Loves You, in 2001, and "Miss Fiorucci" makeup in 2003. Edwin have been aggressively expanding the brand throughout Asia, from Seoul to Tokyo and China.
Although Elio Fiorucci retained creative control during the Edwin era, they are protective of the Fiorucci trademarks, and have taken legal action against H&M in the US when Elio designed their Poolside line. He has also set up a brand of his own called Love Therapy, and designed for Agent Provocateur
.
In March 2003, Elio Fiorucci announced that after 36 years, he was closing the doors to his historic shop in Corso Vittorio Emmanuele, Milan. When Fiorucci hit the scene nearly 40 years ago, he blew Italy - and the rest of the world - away with a larger-than-life attitude. He brought in the new and unexpected, pre-dating the surge of today's "lifestyle" stores. Fiorucci mixed clothing with beauty products, vintage items, music and home furnishings. He even used his retail space for artistic performances. Elio said the reason he was closing his shop was because he had "fallen out of love" with fashion.
and Gucci
, Fiorucci was memorably name-checked in the Sister Sledge
disco song, "He's The Greatest Dancer
".
Australian rock band Australian Crawl
released the song "Hoochie Gucci Fiorucci Mama"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS2Ok3bjQz0 on their debut album The Boys Light Up
in 1980. The title is presumably a play on the name of the Willie Dixon
song "Hoochie Coochie Man
" but the lyrics http://lyrics.wikia.com/Australian_Crawl:Hoochie_Gucci_Fiorucci_Mama speak of a rich and fashionable woman who is lonely inside.
The Beverly Hills Fiorucci store was featured in the 1980 cult classic movie Xanadu
where the ELO
video "All Over the World" was filmed.
British artist Mark Leckey
used the brand name in his landmark work from 2000, Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore.
The 1981 EP Minor Disturbance
by American punk band The Teen Idles
featured the song "Fiorucci Nightmare".
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
fashion label founded by Elio Fiorucci in 1967. The first shop exposed Milan to the styles of Swinging London
Swinging London
Swinging London is a catch-all term applied to the fashion and cultural scene that flourished in London, in the 1960s.It was a youth-oriented phenomenon that emphasised the new and modern. It was a period of optimism and hedonism, and a cultural revolution. One catalyst was the recovery of the...
and American classics such as the T-shirt
T-shirt
A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....
and jeans
Jeans
Jeans are trousers made from denim. Some of the earliest American blue jeans were made by Jacob Davis, Calvin Rogers, and Levi Strauss in 1873. Starting in the 1950s, jeans, originally designed for cowboys, became popular among teenagers. Historic brands include Levi's, Lee, and Wrangler...
. By the late 1970s and early 1980s this would be reversed, and the New York store would become famous for the fashions it introduced to the United States. Known as the "daytime Studio 54
Studio 54
Studio 54 was a highly popular discotheque from 1977 until 1991, located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was originally the Gallo Opera House, opening in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming a CBS radio and television studio. In 1977 it...
", it attracted trendsetters from Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
to a young Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
.
As a leader in the globalisation of fashion Fiorucci would scour the globe, introducing a newly affluent mass market to underground trends such as thongs from Brazil and Afghan coats. The label popularised camouflage prints and leopard-skin prints before creating the designer jean market with the invention of stretch jeans. The iconic advertising usually featured a woman's buttocks in skin-tight denim, or in one case obscured by pink fluffy handcuffs, whilst the company logo is two cheeky angels modelled after Raphael
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
's cherubs. However, mismanagement of the company led to receivership in 1989, and since then the brand has been dogged by legal battles over the trademarks, and several relaunches have failed to make much impact.
Early years
Elio Fiorucci was born in Milan on 10 June 1935, son of a shoe shop owner. One day in 1962, Elio came up with the idea of making galoshesGaloshes
Galoshes , also known as boat shoes, dickersons, or overshoes, are a type of rubber boot that is slipped over shoes to keep them from getting muddy or wet. The word galoshes might be used interchangeably with boot, especially a rubberized boot...
in bright primary colours whilst working at his father's shop. When they were featured in a local weekly fashion magazine, the galoshes caused a sensation. Following a trip to London in 1965, Elio was determined to bring Carnaby Street
Carnaby Street
Carnaby Street is a pedestrianised shopping street in London, United Kingdom, located in the Soho district, near Oxford Street and Regent Street. It is home to numerous fashion and lifestyle retailers, including a large number of independent fashion boutiques...
fashions to Milan. He opened his first shop on Galleria Passerella in Milan on 31 May 1967 selling clothes by London designers such as Ossie Clark
Ossie Clark
Raymond "Ossie" Clark was an English fashion designer who was a major figure in the Swinging Sixties scene in London and the fashion industry in that era...
and Zandra Rhodes
Zandra Rhodes
Zandra Rhodes, CBE, RDI, is an English fashion designer.Zandra Rhodes was introduced to the world of fashion by her mother, who was a fitter in a Paris fashion house and a teacher at Medway College of Art, now the University for the Creative Arts. Rhodes studied first at Medway and then at the...
.
In 1968 Fiorucci looked East for inspiration, buying cheap T-shirts from India, and turning rice sacks into bags. Two years later the company set up its own manufacturing plant, and adopted the "two angels" logo created by Italo Lupi. In 1974 the company opened a huge new store on Via Torino in Milan, expanding beyond fashion to offer books, furniture and music. The new shop also had a performance area, vintage clothing market, and restaurant, and was financed by an investment from the Standa
Standa
-History:It was founded in 1931 as Magazzini Standard by a former executive of UPIM and subsequently renamed as Standa . When it was bought by Montedison in 1966 it had 126 branches all over Italy...
department stores, part of the Montedison group. Meanwhile the label introduced the monokini
Monokini
A monokini, sometimes referred to as a unikini, is a woman's one-piece garment comprising only the lower half of a bikini, leaving the breasts uncovered...
and thong
Thong (clothing)
The thong is a garment generally worn as either underwear or as a swimsuit in many industrialized societies around the world. It may also be worn for traditional ceremonies or competitions such as sumo wrestling...
from Brazil, causing controversy with the topless photos used to advertise them. Glass beads from New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
were another hit. In 1975 the company opened its first store overseas, on the Kings Road
Kings Road
King's Road or Kings Road, known popularly as The King's Road or The KR, is a major, well-known street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both in west London, England...
in London, and launched a children's collection called Fioruccino. It brought Afghan coats to the mass market, and popularised the leopard-skin prints first created by Elsa Schiaparelli
Elsa Schiaparelli
Elsa Schiaparelli was an Italian fashion designer. Along with Coco Chanel, her greatest rival, she is regarded as one of the most prominent figures in fashion between the two World Wars. Starting with knitwear, Schiaparelli's designs were heavily influenced by Surrealists like her collaborators...
two decades before.
Heyday
The 1976 opening of the store next to Bloomingdale'sBloomingdale's
Bloomingdale's is an American department store owned by Macy's, Inc. .Bloomingdale's started in 1861 when brothers Joseph and Lyman G. Bloomingdale started selling hoop-skirts in their Ladies Notions' Shop on Manhattan's Lower East Side...
, on East 59th Street
59th Street (Manhattan)
59th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan runs east-west, from York Avenue to the West Side Highway, with a discontinuity between Ninth Avenue/Columbus Avenue and Eighth Avenue/Central Park West for the Time Warner Center. Although it is bi-directional for most of its length, the...
in New York, introduced the brand to American trendsetters during the disco age. Customers such as Marc Jacobs
Marc Jacobs
Marc Jacobs is an American fashion designer. He is the head designer for Marc Jacobs, as well as Marc by Marc Jacobs, a diffusion line, with more than 200 retail stores in 60 countries. He has been the creative director of the French design house Louis Vuitton since 1997...
Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
and Terence Conran
Terence Conran
Sir Terence Orby Conran, FCSD, is an English designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer.-Early life and education:Terence Conran was born in Kingston upon Thames, the son of Christina Mabel and South African-born Gerard Rupert Conran, a businessman who owned a rubber importation company in East...
would rub shoulders with Jackie Onassis and Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks.She first emerged as leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in The Big Sleep and Dark Passage ,...
, you might see drag queen Joey Arias
Joey Arias
Joey Arias is a New York City based performance artist, cabaret singer, and drag artist.Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, he was six when he moved with his family to Los Angeles. After singing with the rock band "Purlie" on Capitol Records and a stint with famed improvisational group the...
serving the King of Spain
Juan Carlos I of Spain
Juan Carlos I |Italy]]) is the reigning King of Spain.On 22 November 1975, two days after the death of General Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos was designated king according to the law of succession promulgated by Franco. Spain had no monarch for 38 years in 1969 when Franco named Juan Carlos as the...
,, author Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland is a Canadian novelist. His fiction is complemented by recognized works in design and visual art arising from his early formal training. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularized terms such as McJob and...
absorbing the store's pop culture or Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968. In addition to clothing, Klein has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry....
and Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Laura Vanderbilt is an American artist, author, actress, heiress, and socialite most noted as an early developer of designer blue jeans...
buying some jeans. In the early 1980s the Fiorucci art director was jewelry designer Maripol
Maripol
Maripol was brought up in France before moving to New York, USA in 1976. She is an artist, film producer, fashion designer and stylist who has had an influence on the looks of many influential artists, including Grace Jones, Deborah Harry, and Madonna. Maripol is also a Polaroid artist...
, known for creating Madonna's look at the time. Other employees included Madonna's brother Christopher Ciccone, Terry Jones of i-D magazine fame and Oliviero Toscani
Oliviero Toscani
Oliviero Toscani is an Italian photographer, best-known worldwide for designing controversial advertising campaigns for Italian brand Benetton, from 1982 to 2000...
who shot many of the famous Benetton
Benetton Group
Benetton Group S.p.A. is a global luxury fashion brand, based in Treviso, Italy. The name comes from the Benetton family who founded the company in 1965. Benetton Group is listed in Milan....
adverts. and famed interior designer Jim Walrod
Jim Walrod
Jim Walrod, often referred to as the “design guru" is a self-taught interior design consultant and considered an expert in the field of mid century design. In the 1980s, he was an assistant art director for the Italian fashion house, ,. Mike D of the Beastie Boys originally coined another of his...
In May 1979 cartoon/graffiti based artist Kenny Scharf
Kenny Scharf
Kenny Scharf is an American painter who lives in Brooklyn, New York. The artist received his B.F.A in 1980 at the School of Visual Arts located in New York City. Scharf's works consist of popular culture based shows with made up science-related backgrounds...
has first solo exhibition in the New York Fiorucci, the show was called "Fiorucci Celebrates the New Wave" and featured his colorful, retro-futuristic "Estelle Series." The opening included a performance with Klaus Nomi, the new wave / opera singer.
Meanwhile, the company continued to bring new products to market, including a collection made from DuPont
DuPont
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont was the world's third largest chemical company based on market capitalization and ninth based on revenue in 2009...
's new Tyvek
Tyvek
Tyvek is a brand of flashspun high-density polyethylene fibers, a synthetic material; the name is a registered trademark of DuPont. The material is very strong; it is difficult to tear but can easily be cut with scissors or a knife...
fabric, and velvet slippers from China. In 1978 they were the first fashion house to license their name for a collection of sunglasses, whilst in 1981 a Disney licence led to a highly successful range of clothes emblazoned with Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
. Ever on the pulse of the times, Fiorucci sponsored the reunion of Simon and Garfunkel
Simon and Garfunkel
Simon & Garfunkel are an American duo consisting of singer-songwriter Paul Simon and singer Art Garfunkel. They formed the group Tom & Jerry in 1957 and had their first success with the minor hit "Hey, Schoolgirl". As Simon & Garfunkel, the duo rose to fame in 1965, largely on the strength of the...
in The Concert in Central Park
The Concert in Central Park
The Concert in Central Park is a live album by Simon & Garfunkel. On September 19, 1981 the folk-rock duo reunited for a free concert on the Great Lawn of New York's Central Park, attended by more than 500,000 people. They released a live album from the concert the following March...
on 19 September 1981, attended by 400,000 people or more, and on the bill for their birthday party in 1983 was a then-unknown Madonna. In 1982 the company launched the first stretch jeans with Lycra, and the success of the 5-pocket "Safety" jeans was recognised three years later in a licensing deal with Wrangler Jeans
Wrangler Jeans
Wrangler is a manufacturer of jeans and other clothing items. The brand is owned by the VF Corporation, who also own Lee, JanSport and The North Face, among others. Its headquarters is in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina, with production plants in a variety of locations throughout the world...
. In 1987 Fiorucci produced the Junior Gaultier line designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier, and in 1989 they went back to their roots with a deal with Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.-Early life:...
, queen of the London street scene.
The company expanded rapidly after 1978, launching new stores across the US, Europe and Asia. In 1981 Benetton
Benetton Group
Benetton Group S.p.A. is a global luxury fashion brand, based in Treviso, Italy. The name comes from the Benetton family who founded the company in 1965. Benetton Group is listed in Milan....
bought Montedison's 50% stake in Fiorucci, which was reduced to 33.3% in 1986 when Elio Fiorucci brought in Iranian businessman Massimo Aki Nuhi (Akinouhi) as a third partner via his holding company Aknofin. Benetton sold their remaining stake to Fiorucci and Aki Nuhi in August 1987. Despite thriving sales, the company was dogged by poor management and had had to close the New York store in 1984; Betsey Johnson
Betsey Johnson
Betsey Johnson is an American fashion designer best known for her feminine and whimsical designs. Many of her designs are considered "over the top" and embellished...
has suggested "Fiorucci was the most happening place. It never stopped being happening — it just left New York City, because I don't think New York City was happening enough by the mid-80's". Fiorucci closed down the rest of the US retail locations in 1988 after a franchise dispute, moving instead to a wholesale strategy. The company went into administration in April 1989 following a dispute over the strategic direction of the firm that had seen Elio offer to buy out Aki Nuhi.
Revival
The company was rescued by the Tacchella brothers of Italian jeans company Carrera S.p.A., who sold on the company to Japanese jeans group Edwin Co., Ltd for 45bn lire (~US$41m). In January 1996 after a plea bargain, Elio Fiorucci was given a suspended jail sentence of 22 months for inflating the value of invoices to increase the value of the company to Carrera at the expense of his creditors. Luciano Benetton was cleared of similar charges, on the grounds that he had not been involved at an operational level during his time (September 1985 - September 1987) on the board of Fiorucci.Originally Edwin planned to launch five stores in key cities like London, but although they signed an initial deal on 4 June 1990 that was ratified that October, Edwin did not gain control of the Fiorucci assets until May 1992. In fact they would later lose the rights to the Fiorucci name in Canada on the grounds of disuse. However, one of Edwin's first acts was a deal with Coles Myer that would see 68 Fiorucci concessions in stores across Australia. They opened a new store in Piazza San Babila, Milan in early 1993, that included a variety of branded boutiques. It took them longer to get things going in North America, after a 1993 deal with Mary Ann Wheaton of Wheaton International fell through. In 1995 they licensed the rights for eyewear in the US to Swan International Optical, and then opened a US office in September 1997. However, the strategy of their licensee, Stephen Budd, to sell the brand into US department stores didn't work out so in 1999 they announced a plan to open a New York store once again. The initial plan was to open in time for Christmas 1999, but the store on lower Broadway finally opened its doors in June 2001. Commentators such as Kim Hastreiter were sceptical that it could recapture the buzz of times past, given the increased competition in mass-market clubbing gear from the likes of H&M
H&M
H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB is a Swedish retail-clothing company, known for its fast-fashion clothing offerings for women, men, teenagers and children....
and The Limited.
Meanwhile the brand continued to thrive in Europe, and regained some of its former notoriety in 1995 with a poster campaign for its jeans featuring a naked woman's buttocks and pink furry handcuffs, which became instant bestsellers. In 1999 it launched a successful perfume, followed by a second, Fiorucci Loves You, in 2001, and "Miss Fiorucci" makeup in 2003. Edwin have been aggressively expanding the brand throughout Asia, from Seoul to Tokyo and China.
Although Elio Fiorucci retained creative control during the Edwin era, they are protective of the Fiorucci trademarks, and have taken legal action against H&M in the US when Elio designed their Poolside line. He has also set up a brand of his own called Love Therapy, and designed for Agent Provocateur
Agent Provocateur (lingerie)
Agent Provocateur is a British lingerie retailer founded in 1994 by Joseph Corré and Serena Rees. The first shop was opened on London's Broadwick Street in the Soho district in 1994. Since then, the company has opened 30 stores in 13 countries across the globe. In 2007, Agent Provocateur was...
.
In March 2003, Elio Fiorucci announced that after 36 years, he was closing the doors to his historic shop in Corso Vittorio Emmanuele, Milan. When Fiorucci hit the scene nearly 40 years ago, he blew Italy - and the rest of the world - away with a larger-than-life attitude. He brought in the new and unexpected, pre-dating the surge of today's "lifestyle" stores. Fiorucci mixed clothing with beauty products, vintage items, music and home furnishings. He even used his retail space for artistic performances. Elio said the reason he was closing his shop was because he had "fallen out of love" with fashion.
In popular culture
In 1979, along with HalstonHalston
Roy Halston Frowick, also known as Halston was a clothing designer of the 1970s. His long dresses or copies of his style were popular fashion wear in mid-1970s discotheques.-Early life and career:...
and Gucci
Gucci
The House of Gucci, better known simply as Gucci , is an Italian fashion and leather goods label, part of the Gucci Group, which is owned by French company PPR...
, Fiorucci was memorably name-checked in the Sister Sledge
Sister Sledge
Sister Sledge is an American musical group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, formed in 1972 and consisting of four sisters: Kim Sledge Debbie Sledge , Joni Sledge , and Kathy Sledge . They are granddaughters of the former opera singer Viola Williams. The sisters used to perform under the name of "Mrs...
disco song, "He's The Greatest Dancer
He's the Greatest Dancer
"He's the Greatest Dancer" is a disco song written by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers and recorded by Sister Sledge for their 1979 breakout album We Are Family ....
".
Australian rock band Australian Crawl
Australian Crawl
Australian Crawl were an Australian rock band founded by James Reyne , Brad Robinson , Paul Williams , Simon Binks and David Reyne in 1978. David Reyne soon left and was replaced by Bill McDonough...
released the song "Hoochie Gucci Fiorucci Mama"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS2Ok3bjQz0 on their debut album The Boys Light Up
The Boys Light Up
The Boys Light Up is the debut album from Australian surf rock band Australian Crawl which was released in 1980 and contains the title track, "The Boys Light Up", "Indisposed", "Downhearted" and their previously released debut single "Beautiful People"...
in 1980. The title is presumably a play on the name of the Willie Dixon
Willie Dixon
William James "Willie" Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. A Grammy Award winner who was proficient on both the Upright bass and the guitar, as well as his own singing voice, Dixon is arguably best known as one of the most prolific songwriters...
song "Hoochie Coochie Man
Hoochie Coochie Man
"Hoochie Coochie Man" is a blues standard written by Willie Dixon and first performed by Muddy Waters in 1954 . The song was a major hit upon its release, reaching #8 on Billboard magazine's Black Singles chart...
" but the lyrics http://lyrics.wikia.com/Australian_Crawl:Hoochie_Gucci_Fiorucci_Mama speak of a rich and fashionable woman who is lonely inside.
The Beverly Hills Fiorucci store was featured in the 1980 cult classic movie Xanadu
Xanadu
-Description of Xanadu by Toghon Temur :The lament of Toghon Temur Khan , concerning the loss of Daidu and Heibun Shanduu in 1368, is recorded in many Mongolian historical chronicles...
where the ELO
Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra were a British rock group from Birmingham who released eleven studio albums between 1971 and 1986 and another album in 2001. ELO were formed to accommodate Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne's desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones...
video "All Over the World" was filmed.
British artist Mark Leckey
Mark Leckey
Mark Leckey is a British artist, working with collage art, music and video. His found art and found footage pieces span several videos, most notably Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore and Industrial Lights and Magic , for which he won the 2008 Turner Prize.-Life:Leckey was born in Birkenhead, near...
used the brand name in his landmark work from 2000, Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore.
The 1981 EP Minor Disturbance
Minor Disturbance
Minor Disturbance was the sole studio extended play by the Washington, D.C. hardcore punk band The Teen Idles, released on Dischord Records in December 1980...
by American punk band The Teen Idles
The Teen Idles
The Teen Idles were an American hardcore punk band formed in Washington, D.C. in August 1979. Teenagers Nathan Strejcek, Geordie Grindle, Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson were the band's continual members. Their recorded output consists of two demo sessions and one EP—1980's Minor Disturbance—released...
featured the song "Fiorucci Nightmare".
Further reading
Published at the height of the label's influence, this book is now a sought-after record of the time, selling for US$100's. New edition of book originally published in 1987 Also available in US editionsExternal links
- www.fiorucci.it Official website Go to History -> Barcelona Defile -> Posters to see a gallery of Fiorucci's iconic advertising Pretty frivolous interview, but gives you an idea of what the man is like