Founded by Elio Fiorucci in 1962
Born: Milan, Italy, 1935
In the same way that Biba made black lipstick beautiful, Fiorucci made the 1950s fashionable. An inspired retailer, after inheriting his father's footwear business, Elio Fiorucci started to stock hip 1960s' designers (the British contingent included Ossie Clark). Fiorucci was aimed specifically at the youth market, taking inspiration from the 1950s' plastic shoes, bags and jeans - a reversal of roles: American classics with Italian marketing. Colourful and airbrushed, the advertising had a Vargas-Girl slant, with glamorous starlets featured on posters. Fiorucci claims that it was the first company in Italy to show bare breasts in an advertising campaign. Italy went berserk at one particular circular car sticker they produced. `Fiorucci is fashion. Fiorucci is flash. Fiorucci stores are the best free show in town,' said The Fiorucci Book (1981), `but the difference is all that sex and irony.'
