Ralph Rucci (born 1957) is an American

fashion designer Fashion design is the Art (skill), art of applied arts, applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction, and natural beauty to clothing and its Fashion accessory, accessories. It is influenced by diverse cultures and different trends and has va ...

and artist. He is known in particular for Chado Ralph Rucci, a luxury clothing and accessories line. Rucci's clothing designs have appeared in a number of major exhibitions, and he has won significant fashion-industry awards. The designer, whose clothing has received positive critical response in the fashion press, is the subject of a recent documentary.

Life and career

Rucci was born and raised in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, and holds a degree in

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

from

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

. At the age of 21, he moved to New York to study at the

Fashion Institute of Technology The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a public college under the State University of New York, in New York City. It focuses on art, business, design, mass communication, and technology connected to the fashion industry. It was founded in ...

and later trained under

Halston Roy Halston Frowick (April 23, 1932 – March 26, 1990), known mononymously as Halston, was an American fashion designer, who rose to international fame in the 1970s. Halston's minimalist, clean designs, which were often made of cashmere or ...

and a

Balenciaga Balenciaga SA ( , , ) is a Spanish Basque luxury fashion house currently headquartered in Paris. It designs, manufactures and markets ready-to-wear footwear, handbags, and accessories, and licenses its name and branding to the American cosmeti ...

patternmaker. He had his first formal show at New York's Westbury Hotel in 1981, but launched Chado Ralph Rucci over a decade later, in 1994, and began showing at

New York Fashion Week New York Fashion Week (NYFW), held in February and September of each year, is a semi-annual series of events in Manhattan typically spanning seven to nine days when international Fashion design, fashion collections are shown to buyers, the pres ...

in 1999. In 2002, Rucci became the first American designer in more than 60 years to be invited to show in Paris by the French

Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Chambre (French for ''chamber'') may refer to: * Chambre des Pairs * Chambre des Députés * Chambre de bonne * Chambre introuvable * Valet de chambre * Chambre Ardente People with the surname * Alan Chambré * Calcot Chambre See also * Chamb ...

(the only other designer to be so honored was

Mainbocher Mainbocher is a fashion label founded by the American couturier Main Rousseau Bocher (October 24, 1890 – December 27, 1976), also known as Mainbocher (pronounced "Maine-Bow-Shay"). Established in 1929, the house of Mainbocher successfully op ...

), and he showed his

haute couture (; ; French for 'high sewing', 'high dressmaking') is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design. The term ''haute couture'' generally refers to a specific type of upper garment common in Europe during the 16th to the ...

collections in Paris for the next five seasons. He has twice been nominated for the

Council of Fashion Designers of America The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. (CFDA), founded in 1962 by publicist Eleanor Lambert, and headquartered in Manhattan, is a not-for-profit trade association comprising a membership of over 450 American fashion and accessor ...

's Womenswear Designer of the Year Award. Rucci is also a painter, who has exhibited in art galleries throughout the U.S. His paintings, exhibited at the Serge Sorokko Gallery in San Francisco in December, 2012, were described by ''

Architectural Digest ''Architectural Digest'' (stylized in all caps) is an American monthly magazine founded in 1920. Its principal subjects are interior design and landscaping, rather than pure external architecture. The magazine is published by Condé Nast ...

'' as "enigmatic works... bearing sweeping brushstrokes that are collaged, here and there, with scraps of silken fabrics." From the beginning of his career, Rucci was inspired by the style of such fashion icons as

Elsa Peretti Elsa Peretti, OMRI OMM (1 May 1940 – 18 March 2021), was an Italian jewelry designer and philanthropist as well as a fashion model. Her jewelry and design pieces for Tiffany & Co. are included in the 20th century collection of the British Mu ...

(for her "biomorphic nature") and

Pauline de Rothschild Pauline, Baroness de Rothschild (née Potter; December 31, 1908 – March 8, 1976) was an American fashion designer, writer and, with her second husband, a translator of both Elizabethan poetry and the plays of Christopher Fry.Philippe de Rothsch ...

(for "creating harmony out of disorder"). Rucci's influences also include the painters

Cy Twombly Edwin Parker "Cy" Twombly Jr. (; April 25, 1928July 5, 2011) was an American Painting, painter, Sculpture, sculptor, and photographer. Twombly influenced artists such as Anselm Kiefer, Francesco Clemente, Julian Schnabel, and Jean-Michel Bas ...

Franz Kline Franz Kline (May 23, 1910 – May 13, 1962) was an American painter. He is associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940s and 1950s. Kline, along with other action painters like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Mo ...

Antoni Tàpies Antoni Tàpies i Puig, 1st Marquess of Tápies, Marquess of Tàpies (; 13 December 1923 – 6 February 2012) was a Catalans, Catalan painter, sculptor, and art theorist. Life The son of Josep Tàpies i Mestre and Maria Puig i Guerra, Antoni T ...

and

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...

, sculptor

Louise Nevelson Louise Nevelson (September 23, 1899 – April 17, 1988) was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures. Born in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Kyiv Oblast, ...

, Japanese symbolism, and the designer

James Galanos James Galanos (; September 20, 1924 – October 30, 2016) was an American fashion designer and couturier. Galanos is known for designing clothing for America's social elite, including Nancy Reagan, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and others. ...

. Rucci's "individual mind" has been praised, as well as his "distinct point of view," as ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' noted in a review on a 2007 Rucci exhibition at the

. In 2007, fashion historian

Valerie Steele Valerie Fahnestock Steele (born 1955) is an American fashion historian, curator, and director of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Steele has written more than eight books on the history of fashion, and can be regarded as one of ...

wrote ''The Art of Weightlessness'', an illustrated monograph published by the ''

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

'' on the occasion of Rucci's exhibition at the FIT Museum. In 2008, the documentary ''Ralph Rucci: A Designer and His House'', narrated by

Martha Stewart Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail business woman, writer, and television personality. As the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, focusing on home and hospitality, she gained success through a variety ...

, premiered on the ''

Sundance Channel Sundance Channel can refer to: * Sundance TV, formerly known as Sundance Channel (United States). * Sundance Channel (Canada) * Sundance Channel (Netherlands) * Sundance Channel (Europe) Sundance Channel can refer to: * Sundance TV Sundance TV ...

''. In 2011, Rucci was inducted into the

Fashion Group International The Fashion Group International (FGI) is a global, non-profit, professional organization founded in 1930 in New York City to benefit the fashion industry. FGI currently has over 5000 members in the fashion industry including apparel, accessories, b ...

Walk of Fame. In December 2011, Bauer and Dean published ''Autobiography of a Fashion Designer: Ralph Rucci'', with photographs by Baldomero Fernandez. In 2012, Rucci received an

André Leon Talley André Leon Talley (October 16, 1948 – January 18, 2022) was an American fashion journalist, stylist, creative director, author, and editor-at-large of '' Vogue'' magazine. He was the magazine's fashion news director from 1983 to 1987, its f ...

Lifetime Achievement Award from the

Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is a private art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, France. It was founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not yet offered in the southeast of the United ...

Chado Ralph Rucci

Rucci launched the Chado Ralph Rucci line in 1994, "

chado The Japanese tea ceremony (known as or lit. 'Hot water for tea') is a Culture of Japan, Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of , powdered green tea, the procedure of which is called . The term "Japa ...

" coming from the Japanese tea ceremony noted for its attention to detail, exactitude, sense of austere style, and expertise on the part of the practitioner. According to

Cathy Horyn Cathy Horyn (born September 11, 1956) is an American fashion critic and journalist who worked for ''The New York Times'' from 1998 until 2014 where she had the highly noted and provocative blo''On The Runway'' In 2015, she was appointed critic- ...

of ''

'', "Mr. Rucci’s clothes have a devotion to elegance that can feel as pitiless as a sermon on a hot summer day," while

Robin Givhan Robin Givhan (born September 11, 1964) is an American fashion editor and Pulitzer Prize winning writer. Givhan was a fashion editor for ''The Washington Post''. She joined the ''Post'' in 1995, and left in 2010 to become the fashion critic and fa ...

of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' wrote that "Rucci's clothes are aspirational in every sense of the word. They ooze luxury from 100 paces, yet they are not ostentatious. They look expensive because every seam is perfect, every button exactly placed, every skirt has just the right lift. No dress of his would dare wrinkle." Rucci's gowns are included in the permanent collections of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

in London, the Costume Institute of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

in New York,

DeYoung Museum The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California, named for early San Francisco newspaperman M. H. de Young. Located on the West Side of the city in Golden Gate Park, it ...

in San Francisco, the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

, the

Phoenix Art Museum The Phoenix Art Museum is the largest art museum, museum for visual art in the southwest United States. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is . It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,0 ...

, the

Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's ori ...

, and the

Texas Fashion Collection The Texas Fashion Collection is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and documentation of historically significant fashion. It is operated by the University of North Texas through the College of Visual Arts and Design (CVAD) a ...

Denton, Texas Denton is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Denton County, Texas, Denton County. With a population of 139,869 as of 2020, it is the List of cities in Texas by population, 20th-most populous city in Texas, the List of Un ...

, among others.

Museum exhibitions

*2003: Rucci's gown was included in "Goddess" exhibition at the Costume Institute of the

in New York, N.Y. *2004: Rucci's gown was included in "Goddess" exhibition at the Mode Museum in Antwerp, Belgium *2005: Rucci's designs were included in “Cut and Construction: The Foundations of Fashion” exhibition at the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

in New York, N.Y. *2005: Chado Ralph Rucci was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Costume Institute of the

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a Public university, public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio located in Kent State University at Ashtabula, Ashtabula, Kent State ...

Museum in Kent, Ohio. *2005: a Chado Ralph Rucci garment was included in the "She's Like a Rainbow: Colors in Fashion" exhibition at the Museum at the

in New York, N.Y. *2006: Rucci's designs were exhibited at a group show entitled "Breaking the Mode" at the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

, in Los Angeles, California. *2006: a Rucci gown was included in the "Glamour: Fashion, Film, Fantasy" exhibition at the Museum at the

in New York, N.Y. *2006: Rucci's designs were included in the "Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture" exhibition at the

in Los Angeles, California *2007: a solo installation entitled "Ralph Rucci: The Art of Weightlessness" was mounted at the Museum at the

in New York, N.Y. *2008: a retrospective solo exhibition opened at the

in Phoenix, Arizona. *2008: Rucci's gowns went on exhibit entitled "A Passion for Perfection:

Gustave Tassell Gustave Tassell (February 4, 1926 – June 9, 2014) was an American fashion designer and Coty Award winner. Early life and career Tassell was born on February 4, 1926, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Lena (née Schiller; 1901–1973) and Sa ...

, Ralph Rucci" at the

in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. *2009: Rucci's designs were included in the group show "American Beauty: Aesthetics and Innovation in Fashion" at the Museum at the

in New York, N.Y. *2010: a collection of Rucci's

gowns went on exhibit entitled "Extending the Runway:

Tatiana Sorokko Tatiana Sorokko (née Ilyushkina; , tr. ; born 26 December 1971) is a Russian-born American model, fashion journalist, and haute couture collector. She walked the runways for the world's most prominent designers and fashion houses, appeared ...

Style", at the Moscow Fashion Museum in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. *2010: a

gown, designed by Rucci when he worked for the House of Halston in the late 1970s, was attributed to Ralph Rucci and included in the "American High Style: Fashioning a National Collection" exhibition at the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

in Brooklyn, N.Y. *2012: Rucci's designs went on exhibit at the Savannah College of Art and Design Museum in Savannah, Georgia.

Awards and honors

*2005: The Star Award from the

of New York *2006: The Artistry of Fashion Award from The Couture Council of The Museum at FIT *2008: The Fashion Design Award of the National Design Awards Program of the

Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum at the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile. It is one of 19 Smithsonian Institution museums and one of three Smithsonian facili ...

*2008: A

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

degree

honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

from the San Francisco Academy of Art University *2009: The

Icon Award. *2011: The first Visionary Award for Fashion from the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts *2011: Inducted into the

International Walk of Fame *2012: The Andre' Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award from SCAD *2015: Honorary Doctoral Degree from

Drexel University Drexel University is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony Joseph Drexel, Anthony J. Drexel, a financier ...

College of Art and Design

References

Notes Bibliography * Bissonnette, Anne. ''Chado Ralph Rucci''. Exhibition catalogue. Kent, Ohio. Kent State University Museum, 2005 * Rucci, Ralph. ''Ralph Rucci with

Iké Udé Iké Udé (born 1964) is a Nigerian-American photographer, performance artist, author, and publisher based in New York City, United States. Early life and education Udé was born in 1964 in Makurdi, Nigeria where he was raised. The eldest son o ...

: Dialogues with Design Legends''. New York: 92nd Street Y, 2009 * Rucci, Ralph and Fernandez, Baldomero. ''Autobiography of a Fashion Designer: Ralph Rucci''. New York: Bauer and Dean, 2011 * Sewell, Dennita. ''Extending the Runway: Tatiana Sorokko Style''. Moscow: Russian Fashion Museum, 2010. * Steele, Valerie; Mears, Patricia and Sauro, Clare. ''Ralph Rucci: The Art of Weightlessness''. New York:

, 2007.

External links

* *
Ralph Rucci at ''artnet.com''

at ''

'' video
Chado Ralph Rucci at ''World News''

Spring 2015 Ready to Wear Collection on ''Vogue.com''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rucci, Ralph American people of Italian descent Artists from Philadelphia American fashion designers Clothing brands of the United States Temple University alumni Fashion Institute of Technology alumni High fashion brands American businesspeople in fashion Companies based in New York City 1957 births Living people