In an exclusive setting overlooking Florence, the renovated Villa Bardini dates from the Renaissance. Architect Michele De Lucchi has chosen Ruckstuhl carpets to design the museum for the life work of the Italian fashion designer Roberto Capucci.

Around 450 square metres of the Rep 653 woollen carpet was laid from wall to wall. The restrained colour tonality sets off the bright garments to best advantage. The notable mixture of the natural fibres hair yarn and wool, coupled with durable and stabilising synthetic elements in the background, supports the restrained elegance of the renovated villa. Wool and hair fibres also have an atmospheric balancing effect, absorbing humidity and restoring it again to the environment. The sound-deadening properties of the material help to make a subdued and restrainedly genteel impression on the visitor.

Museo Roberto Capucci with Ruckstuhl carpet Rep

Fashion Design by Roberto Capucci

Museo Roberto Capucci with Ruckstuhl carpet Rep

Museo Roberto Capucci with Ruckstuhl carpet Rep

Museo Roberto Capucci with Ruckstuhl carpet Rep

Roberto Capucci was a 1950 prodigy. The name stands for internationally unrivalled  women‘s fashion from Italy, blazing creativity and ability of the highest order. It stands for colourful phantasmagoria and extravagant formal design, breathtaking stage creations and exclusive materials, mostly specially made for an article of clothing to be worn on just one exceptional occasion. Capucci‘s creations range from styling to art, metamorphosing into ‚the art of clothing‘, ‚architectonic fashion design‘, ‚textile sculptures‘ and ‚works of art‘ – individual specimens of his work are to be found in the most famous art galleries and museums of the world. Roberto Capucci has personally been on the receiving end of enthusiastic compliments from princesses and First Ladies, prima donnas and opera singers, directors and fashion designers alike – among them Jacqueline Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Gloria Swanson and Rita Levi Montalcini, when she received her Nobel Prize for medicine in 1986. Capucci‘s clothes give ladies a magical aura, or so everyone says. It takes him three to five months to create a dress. He is said to be disarmingly spontaneous, extremely structured in his approach, focused on his work and uncomplicated in his dealings with other people. He passionately invokes the beautiful, while aiming for the august. Capucci describes his work as an ongoing study of form. He is regarded as a supreme master of cuts and folds. He provided costumes for the film Theorem, deciding that in  future he only wanted to work for Piero Pasolini in this role. Legends have been quick to accumulate around Roberto Capucci. His path led him from a studio of his own in Rome to a six year stay in Paris, after which he returned to Rome again in 1968. He set up a foundation at quite an early stage. It has been collecting his works since 1951. In 2007 these acquired a permanent home at the Villa Bardini in Florence, one of the most exclusive addresses in the city – on the Costa San Giorgio hill, with breathtaking views over Florence and the Ponte Vecchio.

Architecture by Michele De Lucchi:
The architect Michele de Lucchi took on the task of designing the museum for the life work of Roberto Capucci in Florence‘s recently renovated Villa Bardini. Since 1950 the Roberto Capucci Foundation has maintained an archive of the designer‘s works. It includes 400 samples of haute couture and textile sculptures, 22,000 fashion sketches, 300 illustrations, 20 sketchbooks, 150 videos, 40,000 photographs and 50,000 newspaper cuttings. The choice of Michele de Lucchi as the architect for the Capucci project was no accident. Both figures are linked by a deep attraction to traditional handcrafts. Michele De Lucchi is himself a gifted draughtsman, whose own archive of sketches may well be as copious as that of Capucci. Since 1973 Michele De Lucchi has been directing the design and architecture office of which he was the founder, having more than 35 architects and designers (of all nationalities, and coming from a wide range of different backgrounds) on his staff. The team reflects a transcultural approach to the innovation-driven global community. The group endeavours to uncover potential based on the interplay of architectonic thinking, industrial design and worldwide communications. Michele de Lucci‘s Produzione Privata® organisation supports and encourages in-depth studies for design solutions that rely on traditional handcraft techniques. He is firmly convinced that an individual and inventive approach to a problem (his own experiments included) forms the basis for independent solutions. ‚Just a little is quite enough.‘ This motto shows his preference for economising with his resources. Intelligent solutions that make a major impact are often based, in his view, on a minimum of intervention.