Emilio Pucci: The Astonishing Odyssey of a Fashion Icon

Emilio Pucci’s unlikely role in aiding Allied forces during WWII is chronicled in this thrilling account from documentary producer Ward (Searching for Hassan) and Idanna Pucci, the Italian designer’s niece. Pucci grew up in an aristocratic family and studied in the U.S. before serving as a fighter pilot in Egypt; he returned to Italy “violently hating the Fascist regime.” In 1943, after Italian foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano was executed, his wife, Edda Ciano—a close friend of Pucci’s—showed up on Pucci’s doorstep, desperate for help smuggling her husband’s diaries out of the country. The authors reconstruct in gripping detail how he successfully ferried Ciano’s wife to the Swiss border with the diaries—which “destroy[ed] all illusions of a united Axis” by framing the Italians as “servants” of the Nazis—sewn into her clothes, before Pucci was captured by the Nazis. The diaries helped secure the conviction of Nazi foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in the Nuremberg trials, though Pucci felt “betrayed” by an American press that exploited his story. While the book’s momentum flags postwar, most notably in a concluding series of reflections by Idanna, the narrative is fast-paced and propulsive, drawing from the diaries and Pucci’s accounts to bring the designer’s surprising exploits to colorful life. This will captivate fashion fans and history buffs alike. (Feb.)