Elio Fiorucci: Designer whose innovative style placed him at the epicentre of fashionable 70s New York

Beyond fashion, Fiorucci was a vegetarian and a passionate advocate for animal rights - 'I’ve always been a great lover of freedom of thought,' he declared'

(Piero Oliosi/Polaris / eyevine)

The fashion designer Elio Fiorucci was an ingenious entrepreneur and retailing phenomenon who called himself “a faithful optimist”. His eclectic style, glamorous, colourful and quirky, symbolised the 1970s and became a benchmark for fashion branding. For Giorgio Armani, whose understated style is poles apart from Fiorucci’s, he was “a revolutionary”.

In common with those sartorial virtuosos Ralph Lauren and Paul Smith, Fiorucci had no formal training but learnt his trade on the shop floor. Like them, he instinctively understood that the key to commercial success was not solely through the selling of clothes but the creation of a lifestyle. Ambience was essential. Fiorucci was the first. “I am a merchant who had the humility to watch closely life and people’s behaviour,” he said.

He began by serving customers in his father’s Milanese shoe shop, and his initial success, in 1962, was due to the design of a pair of brightly coloured galoshes which were promoted by Amica magazine. He travelled to London on the proceeds, visiting boutiques in Carnaby Street and the King’s Road, witnessing at first hand the euphoria of the Swinging Sixties.

Describing it as “an amusement park of novelties”, Fiorucci opened his first shop in Milan at the Galleria Passerella in the city’s San Bablia district on 31 May 1967. He applied a bold strategy, featuring kitsch kitchenware alongside key London designers Biba, Zandra Rhodes and Ossie Clark. The new-concept interior design by the sculptress Amalia Del Ponte formed a backdrop for the official opening, and the Italian singer Adriano Celentano arriving in a pink Cadillac.

At its peak, annual sales were around £10m. Fiorucci called it “the most beloved store in Italy”, and said it marked a seminal moment in fashion retailing. “People around the globe still talk about that place,” he said. “Music, books, beautiful women. It was a reference point for people in Milan.”

With the brand fixed in the public consciousness, three years later Fiorucci took the ultimate plunge, diversifying from established designer labels and launching his own. Expansion rapidly followed: a second outlet opened in 1974, over three floors on Milan’s Via Porino, featuring fountains, an antique market selling vintage garments and a fast food restaurant. A year later, Fiorucci opened on the street which had sparked his imagination, the King’s Road.

Credited by the New York Times as “starting everything from designer jeans to Madonna’s career”, in 1976 Fiorucci’s New York flagship store, a stone’s throw from Bloomingdales on East 59th Street, made an immediate impact: customers included Jacqueline Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Cher and Lauren Bacall. With a flair for talent-spotting, Fiorucci assembled a coterie of creatives who choreographed the look. Terry Jones directed advertisements for Fiorucci during the day, developing i-D magazine at night. Oliviero Toscani, later infamous for his controversial Benetton images, was behind the camera. Illustrator Antonio Lopez, then unknown, styled the windows.

Concessions were rented to Anna Sui and the fledgling fashion designer Betsey Johnson, whose first collection was turned down by everyone except Fiorucci. Maripol, a 23-year-old French jewellery designer who would later become a stylist for Grace Jones and Debbie Harry was given her first break by Fiorucci. The store also had a magnetic attraction for artists, with Keith Haring putting graffiti on the walls and Kenny Scharf staging his first solo exhibition.

In 1977, with copies of Interview magazine decorating the Fiorucci windows, Andy Warhol sat with Truman Capote signing copies of the magazine to crowds of customers. “It’s a fun place,” he observed. “That’s all I ever wanted, all that plastic.”

Such was Fiorucci’s reputation for instigating the perfect PR opportunity, his creative team was asked to organise the opening of the legendary nightclub, Studio 54. In the same year, New York magazine declared: “All it took this year to achieve instant chic, day or night, was a pair of $110 gold cowboy boots by Fiorucci.”

Manhattan designers Gloria Vanderbilt and Calvin Klein – Fiorucci fans who built their empires on the concept of designer jeans – first witnessed the phenomenon at Fiorucci in New York. “Fashionable jeans were born in the Fiorucci house,” said Fiorucci. “Jeans are the most representative item. I was able to turn work clothes into something sexy.”

In 1978 Fiorucci was also the first brand to launch an eyewear collection. Immortalised in Sister Sledge’s 1979 disco anthem “The Greatest Dancer”, Fiorucci was heralded, along with Halston and Gucci, as producing some of the finest clothes. The Beverly Hills branch was featured in the 1980s disco film Xanadu.

Fiorucci moved into new markets – Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Rio di Janeiro and Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. By 1990, however, thanks largely to poor management, Fiorucci was struggling financially, and he sold the business to the Japanese group, Edwin International. In 2003, at 68, he launched a company called Love Therapy, producing women’s and children’s collections in Oviesse stores.

Beyond fashion, Fiorucci was a vegetarian and a passionate advocate for animal rights. “I’ve always been a great lover of freedom of thought,” he declared.

Elio Fiorucci, fashion designer: born Milan 10 June 1935; died 20 July 2015.