Lily Collins at the Teen Choice Awards 2013
You’re a fledgling designer hoping for the big time. How do you rise from obscurity?
Try a little promotion from Anna Dello Russo, the oft-photographed clotheshorse and Vogue Nippon (Japan) creative director and editor-at-large. Add in anointing from L.A.’s bright, young things. Stir. Voila!
Take relative fashion newcomer Fausto Puglisi. The designer has gone from Milan’s boy wonder to one of fashion’s biggest names thanks to Dello Russo and the Young Hollywood set, who have brought him out of obscurity and right to the forefront and front page of fashion.
To be fair, Fausto Puglisi wasn’t exactly a nobody, but he was certainly at the early end of his career. The designer was hand-picked by Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce to participate in their Young Designers Project and sell his wares in their Spiga2 boutique. Puglisi, a fellow Milanese designer, first gained attention for his love of embellishment (a nod to Versace?), his masterful combinations of color and print (just a dash of D&G) along with sharp tailoring (a mashup of Armani and Prada?).
Anna Dello Russo in Fausto Puglisi
Dello Russo gave him a double-dose of cred by wearing one of his dresses — in two colors — on two separate occasions. The Anna dress went on to appear on Beyoncé, Kim K and more, catapulting the designer into the spotlight and landing him the cover of Elle (Nicki Minaj) and Marie Claire (Lauren Conrad) magazines. Katy Perry, Avril Lavigne, Coco Rochas and Miley Cyrus have also worn the designer’s work, though not every actress and musician is drawn to his usual gold-studded Neo-Roman jewel-encrusted aesthete. Some, like Conrad and Perry, are more often spotted in his color-blocked, draped dresses with Puglisi’s signature kick-up hem.
Bella Thorne in Fausto Puglisi at the Teen Choice Awards 2013
His latest collection for Resort 2014 was inspired by L.A. and it’s coterie of Young Hollywood starlets. Not only are they his bread-and-butter clientele, they’re the girls who are willing to take a risk and wear something other than a jewel-toned ball gown to an event. And while two actresses wearing one designer would normally result in a Bitch Stole My Look moment on E!’s Fashion Police, Lily Collins and Bella Thorne managed to slide by without a lashing from the Joan Rangers.
The resort collection was marked by Puglisi’s continued use of adornment and experimentation with prints. With no better print to represent L.A. than a palm silhouette, he slapped the fronds on everything from high-low skirts (as seen on Collins) as well as separates, like the set that Thorne chose to wear. Splashed across acid pastels and embellished with his trademark studs and crests, the collection was the first time Puglisi managed to bridge the gap from the girls on magazine mastheads to real-world women. And with the announcement that he’d be helming the new Ungaro, we’re excited to hear more about this rising star in the near future. Let’s just hope that the head honchos at Ungaro don’t let another Young Hollywood starlet (ahem, Lohan) fizzle out a bright future under Fausto’s lead.
