All about Emanuel Ungaro

In the diverse and colourful fashion world of the 1980s, where fashion shows were great, amidst glitz and colour excess, silhouettes cinched at the waist and broad on the shoulders, Italian-born designer Emanuel Ungaro stood out for his incredible ability to mix prints and create sumptuous evening gowns. He did this with great class, so much so that even today his cuts and combinations are famous, and have served as an example for contemporary designers such as Dolce&Gabbana and Moschino, to name but a few. He left Francavilla Fontana, Apulia, moved with his family to France because of their anti-fascist ideas, and lived in Provence for the first years of his life. Here, as was often the case for many great designers of the past, he worked alongside his father, learning his trade as a tailor, and later moved to Paris, where he first worked for Balenciaga and then Courrèges. After this formative period, he founded his eponymous brand in 1965 with the aim of creating garments that could feel like experiences for those who would wear them.

His style over the years

Emmanuel Ungaro 1981

Emmanuel Ungaro 1983

Emmanuel Ungaro 1984

Emmanuel Ungaro 1985

Emmanuel Ungaro FW85

Emmanuel Ungaro AW86

Emmanuel Ungaro 1986

Emmanuel Ungaro AW88

Emmanuel Ungaro SS88

Emmanuel Ungaro SS88

Emmanuel Ungaro 1988

Emmanuel Ungaro FW88

Emmanuel Ungaro SS92

Emmanuel Ungaro SS95

Emmanuel Ungaro SS98

During the first years of his brand, strongly influenced by Courrèges, Ungaro created pieces that clearly belonged to the Space Age fashion. Thus, there were countless metal elements, even very structured and futurist in design, mirrored and geometric decorations, all in a viewpoint strictly linked to the style of the naturalised French designer and therefore marked by a hyperdecoratism, although still far from his most characteristic maximalism. The shots taken by the famous photographer Peter Knapp in the 1970s are a clear example of this early stylistic phase of Ungaro. Approaching the next decade, the creations would begin to take on the more typical configuration of the imagery generally associated with the creative man, so his proposals would become suits and tight-fitting dresses with maxi straps and full of colourful prints that would include flowers, polka dots, abstract geometries and stripes in a constant juxtaposition, not only thematically, but also in terms of nuances. Although the combination was always mismatched, the end result was incredibly harmonious, demonstrating all the skill of the couturier in modifying the classics of women's wardrobes to adapt them to his now so precise aesthetic inclinations. The elegance for which he became famous is certainly fully represented by the famous evening gowns, rich in details such as ruffles, puffed sleeves, corsets, balloon skirts and the ever-present prints together with bright tones.

Ungaro after Emanuel 

SS07

Peter Dundas

FW08

SS10

SS10

Estrella Archs e Lindsay Lohan SS10

In 1996, the French fashion house was acquired by the Ferragamo group, so Ungaro retired from management and left the fashion world for good in 2004. The years that followed were rather complex in terms of creative direction, entrusted for very brief periods to a series of very different designers, starting with Peter Dundas in charge from 2006 to 2007, then Esteban Cortázar from 2007 to 2009 and finally Estrella Archs, remembered above all for her decision to have a celebrity like Lindsay Lohan join her for the 2009-2010 period. This last parenthesis, which seems almost like a leap forward in time, with dynamics that fashion is currently experiencing more and more often and indeed even more radically, is a testimony to how frequent it is for these great Maisons of the past to then experience an understandable period of standstill following the death of the founder, especially in the case of the latter's great talent. In retrospect, when assessing his various replacements, the only one who managed to make a more decisive mark while respecting both the brand's legacy and his own style was Fausto Puglisi, who was appointed in 2013 and lasted in office for five years.