French fashion designer Emanuel Ungaro
By Staff Writer, écoute moi
French fashion designer Emanuel Ungaro has died. The fashion house that bears his name confirmed the news on Sunday in an Instagram post, saying that Ungaro “will remain in our memories as the Master of sensuality, of color and flamboyance.” According to reports coming out of France, he passed on Saturday in Paris at age 86. Ungaro was born in Aix-en-Provence, France, in 1933. His father, an Italian tailor, taught him how to sew, and Ungaro moved to Paris at age 23. He worked under Cristobal Balenciaga and at French brand Courreges before establishing his own company. His brand thrived when shoppers flocked to his label for colorful, audacious designs that blended sex appeal with French flair. First lady Jacqueline Kennedy and actor Catherine Deneuve were ardent fans, wearing
“Season after season, Emanuel Ungaro dared to be different, combining unexpected yet sensual clashes of bright colours and prints with beautiful draping,” the House of Emanuel Ungaro website reads.
French fashion designer Emanuel Ungaro
He sold his house to the Italian fashion group Ferragamo in 1996 and continued to design through 2004, when he retired. Today, the Ungaro brand continues to produce perfumes and luxury furniture as well as women’s collections. Ungaro was known for his sometimes incoherent prints and different materials on top of each other. He mixed flowers and polka dots, stripes and squares often with bright colors and brought a lot of effect on the haute couture catwalk.
One of his first designs to be seen on the catwalk consisted of many layers on top of each other. The model wears trousers with a long tunic dress, on top of that a chasuble dress and another jacket. According to AFP ‘the garments run smoothly into each other, without appearing heavy. The models must be able to move freely’.
French fashion designer Emanuel Ungaro
Emanuel Ungaro mixes prints and materials in collections. In addition to haute couture, Ungaro launched ready-to-wear collections for women in 1968. A few years later followed by a line for men. Over the years, Ungaro built an empire. In addition to fashion, he launched perfumes, shoes and glasses. Until the fashion house was bought by the Ferragamo family in 1996.
From 2001, Emanuel Ungaro, married and father of a daughter, began to distance himself from fashion, leaving the artistic direction of ready-to-wear and accessories to his most important collaborator, Giambattista Valli.
Ungaro himself then designed a few more collections, but in 2004 he definitively withdrew from the world of haute couture, believing that it no longer corresponded to “the expectations of women today”.
“One should not wear a dress, one should live in it,” he once said, according to the AFP news agency.
French fashion designer Emanuel Ungaro
The label was at the height of its popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. Ungaro sold the label to Silicon Valley businessman Asim Abdullah in 2005.
After his departure, the brand gained a reputation for a high turnover of creative staff – most notably Ms Lohan. Emanuel Ungaro seen at his Autumn-Winter show in 2002-2003
The collections the actress worked on were widely panned by fashion critics, and Ungaro himself, as a “disaster”.
The designer was quoted at the time as saying he was “furious” with the move and said his former fashion house was “in the process of losing its soul”. Today it continues to produce women’s fashion, as well as other products including perfumes and luxury furniture. Ungaro was married and had a daughter, but in recent years stayed out of the spotlight.
For decades, Ungaro clothed celebrities and actresses, including Jacqueline Kennedy, Gena Rowlands and Catherine Deneuve.
He had spent the last two years of his life in a “weakened” state of health, a family member said.
He is survived by his wife and their daughter.