All about Emanuel Ungaro The story of the Italian-born designer before Lindsay Lohan took over the artistic direction of the brand

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

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.