Screen Goddess: Diane Kruger in the Byk Gardens in Brentwood, California. Dress, Emanuel Ungaro.
Photo: Erdmann Robert
Headshot of fashion designer, Emanuel Ungaro, with moustache and a three-day beard, with his thumb on his lips, with a serious look
Photo: Irving Penn
Actress Mia Farrow, jumping in a studio, wearing a white crepe bloomer suit consisting of a tunic dress with heavy gold beaded collar, blue pailletted bodice and softly pleated skirt, worn over short bloomers with matching blue paillettes around the legs. Styled with white tights and white Mancini shoes with a flat bow on the toes. Ensemble from Emanuel Ungaro.\
Photo: David Bailey
Model Josefina Toledo (née Josefina Victoria Toledo) leaning over a railing, holding a pink purse by Carlos Falchi and wearing a multicolored dress by Emanuel Ungaro, bracelets and earrings by Laurette Gneagy and black stockings by Evan-Picone Hosiery
Photo: Jean Pagliuso
Headshot of model Daniela Ghione looking at another figure wearing on a black motorcycle helmet. Her hair is cut short in soft layers built up with product to give volume and fullness by Louis Alonzo for Nubest & Co. Makeup by Margaret Avery using Christian Dior products including Ingenue Lipstick and Light Play Eyeshadows. Ghione is wearing a black and grey plaid wool and mohair jacket with a silver fox collar over a cashmere and angora yellow sweater by Emanuel Ungaro. Accessories: pin and necklace by Laurence de Vries. Man's outfit by Giorgio Armani and Helmet by Simpson.
Photo: Arthur Elgort
Model Jenny Howarth sitting at a patio table at the Fontainebleau Hilton Resort and Spa in Miami Beach, Florida. She wears a floral printed fitted silk jacket and short skirt, both from Emanuel Ungaro Parallele, pink sunglasses from Christian Lacroix for Optyl Sunglasses, a pink drawstring bag from Prada, and flat color-blocked shoes from Unisa. Hair by Christiaan. Makeup by Sonia Kashuk.
Photo: Arthur Elgort
Lorenzo Fanfani, student, and Veronica Fanfani, fashion editor, the children of Laura Ungaro from her first marriage, stand with her in the entrance hall of the Paris, France, home she shares with her second husband, fashion designer Emanuel Ungaro, and their daughter Cosima. Two ornately carved wooden benches flank a marble fountain. On the wall hang four paintings of architectural spaces by Eugenio Ungaro, Emanuel's brother. Hair by Kerry Warn at John Frieda using John Frieda products. Makeup by Alan Milroy for Faces.
Photo: Arthur Elgort
Laura Ungaro, wife of fashion designer Emanuel Ungaro, poses in their Paris, France, home with one foot on up on the arm of a chair and her elbows leaning on her knee. She is wearing a white sweater with a long white skirt. Hair by Kerry Warn at John Frieda using John Frieda products. Makeup by Alan Milroy for Faces.
Photo: Arthur Elgort
Cosima Ungaro and her Jack Russell Terrier dog, Olli, sit in her floral bedroom in the home she shares with her father, fashion designer Emanuel Ungaro and her mother, Laura Ungaro (nee Bernabei). The floral wallpaper is a rose chintz originally made for Emanuel Ungaro's couture collection by Rainbow, a collaborator. The bed linens and side table skirt are of a ruffled white floral; the white cabinets are built in under the dormer window; a lamp with a large glass globe sits on the side table. Cosima sits with two stuffed animal toys.
Photo: Arthur Elgort
Fashion designer Emanuel Ungaro stands in the ballroom doorway, embracing his daughter, Cosima, while his wife Laura Emanuel (nee Bernabei) stands opposite, leaning forward towards Cosima, in their newly renovated Left Bank, Paris, France home with painted blue and white wall panels. Emanuel and Cosima are wearing white shirts and white pants, and Laura is wearing a long sleeve ankle length button-up back cream shimmer lace dress by Ungaro. Hair by Kerry Warn at John Frieda using John Frieda products. Makeup by Alan Milroy for Faces.
Photo: Arthur Elgort
The formal garden and water fountain at fashion designer Emanuel Ungaro’s Left Bank, Paris, France, home that he shares with his wife, Laura Ungaro (née Bernabei) and their daughter, Cosima. Olli, Cosima's Jack Russell Terrier dog, runs in the rear garden chasing a soccer ball.
Photo: Arthur Elgort
Model Carol La Brie wearing an Emanuel Ungaro ensemble: a necklace and brassiere of silver steel body jewelry in one piece; wide pants of white feathers with black tips and a silver steel waistband. Makeup and hair by Carita. Model’s hair is pulled up into an elaborate up-do.
Photo: Bert Stern
Model Iman wearing an ensemble from Ungaro: a green cotton jacket with red piping; narrow red cotton pants; multi-color striped silk shirt tied at the waist. Styled with a hair comb by Bill Schiffer for Schiffer Aesthetics, bangles from Borbonese for Ungaro Jewelry, and red three-inch mules from Geoffrey Beene. Hair by Marc Pipino for Pipino-Buccheri Salon. Makeup by Sandra of Xavier New York. Photographed at the home of Oscar and Françoise de la Renta in La Romana, Dominican Republic, about 90 minutes from Santo Domingo.
Photo: Kourken Pakchanian
Nicole Kidman, thumb to her lip, wearing Emanuel Ungaro vintage chiffon dress with beaded slip
Photo: Steven Meisel
Model, Patti Hansen wearing Emanuel Ungaro narrow silk ankle-pants and thin shirt-tunic in cream and coffee stripes, standing poolside at India’s Rajmahal Palace Hotel.
Photographed by Albert Watson, Vogue, May 1978
Model Audrey Marnay wearing a dévoré chiffon flower-print strapless dress by Emmanuel Ungaro Haute Couture, jumping on a bed in the Suite Duc de Windsor at the Hôtel Ritz, Paris; dress fabric by Etro
Photo: Arthur Elgort / Conde Nast
“The '60s were free, innocent, without pressure. I did what I wanted to do. Remember when I was mixing prints. I started that in 1969 and '70,” Emanuel Ungaro once recalled. The designer, who passed away Saturday at the age of 86, was indeed an audacious mix-master of patterns and polka dots, ruches and ruffles.
The 1960s and ‘70s, the decades when Ungaro flourished, was a wildly eclectic era in fashion—a time when the old rules were smashed, and you could suddenly wear whatever you wanted: Fringe and feathers! Torn denim and thrift shop nightgowns! But there were, of course, thousands—maybe millions—of women who still wanted to look polished and who embraced Ungaro’s artful combos, clients who wanted nothing more than to swan around in one of his divine silky dresses.
Despite his commitment to old-fashioned elegance, Ungaro had a real feeling for the times in which he lived. When he opened his couture house, in 1965, he refused to show evening dresses, announcing: “They are not my style. I am a man of this age and I will design for women of this age.”
The designer was born in Aix-en-Provence, where his Italian father had fled ahead of the fascists. His dad gave him a sewing machine when he was three; by the time he was 23, he had fled to Paris, where he worked with the legendary Cristóbal Balenciaga, from whom he said he learned, “rigor and perfectionism.” It was this strictness of execution, the cool strength that informed the ruffles, that made clients, including Jackie Kennedy and Catherine Deneuve, frequent visitors to his atelier.
But like so many names in fashion, so many once-important maisons, unfortunate business decisions can come to sully a great name. In 2005, Ungaro sold the business for $84 million, and thus began a series of house designers including, most notoriously, the actress Lindsey Lohan. Ungaro was an outspoken critic: “Lindsay Lohan's collaboration was a disaster. I am furious but I can't do anything about it," he said. That happens to a lot of designers. We were the creators and patrons, responsible for the creation and destiny of our houses. But when we gave up our houses, we gave up our souls.”
But souls are funny things. They can dim, perhaps, but their light is never entirely extinguished. Ungaro will be remembered not for things that happened that were beyond his control, but for the beautiful frocks he created, and how they delighted and flattered the women who loved to wear them.
