Legendary designer and retailer Elio Fiorucci presented a glorious romp through the history of his eponymous, sassy fashion label, accompanied by a slide show of luscious images – from Oliviero Toscani’s racily sexy photographs for ad campaigns to snaps of stars, from Andy Warhol to Truman Capote, cavorting in the 1970s in its zany New York store. The store was known at the time for surreal performances held in its windows, for example, by German-born singer Klaus Nomi.
A tastemaker par excellence, Elio Fiorucci had the idea of bringing the spirit of Carnaby Street to Milan in 1967 just as the 60s pop movement, fuelled by greater affluence and huge technological advances, was in full swing. Fiorucci’s style was startlingly new at the time for being determinedly postmodern – a pick ‘n’ mix of influences that ultra-hip, 70s pop fashion was picking up on, including 40s glamour, 50s kitsch and 60s pop art. Fiorucci’s forte was discovering fresh uses for existing designs, such as briefcases made of aluminium toolboxes. As Elio said in his Be Open talk, ‘Fiorucci was about the cross-contamination of images’. ‘I came from a revolutionary culture in which everything was called into question,’ he says. ‘Why couldn’t a jute sack used for onions also be a bag or polythene used for sandals?’
Synthetic, flashy, fluoro-bright and above all sexy and body-conscious, Fiorucci’s clothing also chimed perfectly with the late 70s disco/ new wave craze. And indeed the huge New York store became a home-from-home for the Studio 54 crowd, as Elio’s slides amply demonstrated.
Linking his presentation with the conference theme, Daily and Happy, Fiorucci concluded by saying ‘Fiorucci made people smile’.
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