The Istituto Europeo di Design continues its development plan by choosing Palazzo Pucci N6 for the expansion of the IED Firenze premises.
The palazzo is where Marquis Emilio Pucci decided to establish his headquarters in 1947, with workshops and tailoring shops. Palazzo Pucci, the family’s private residence since the 15th century, is now the headquarters of the Emilio Pucci Heritage Hub. In March 2023, the new IED Firenze spaces will be inaugurated on the first floor, enabling young designers to study in classrooms and laboratories that embody history and cultural heritage, Made in Italy, creativity and craftsmanship.
“Our main focus is on Italian students in order to provide them with the tools they need to pursue a successful future. At the same time, we strive to increase the number of international students, who have been four times as numerous in Florence in recent years. IED wants to intercept the growing number of students coming to study in Europe from Asia and the Americas,” says Francesco Gori, CEO of the IED Group.
“We are happy to welcome IED students to Palazzo Pucci N6 in the very rooms that once housed the company that my father founded. In fact, I believe that these spaces have an intrinsic value as he himself used to say ‘you can only create something beautiful in here,’” comments Laudomia Pucci, president of Emilio Pucci Heritage Hub.
“The architectural beauty of Palazzo Pucci is obvious, but this palace in the heart of Florence is also a historical and cult location for Italian and international fashion. Studying fashion design in the same place where Emilio Pucci created his garments will be very exciting for our students. Fashion, like education, needs to rediscover its experiential component and, once again, thrill,” adds Danilo Venturi, director of IED Firenze.
IED Firenze’s development plan also includes the decision to bring big names on the international fashion scene to Florence in order to accompany students with their studies and help them realize their broader potential. This opportunity comes with the launch of the Fashion Master Courses, which for the first time envisage the involvement of international professionals in a mentoring capacity and cover different sectors: Danielle Kwateng, executive editor of Teen Vogue in New York and founder of The Volta River; Elizabeth Bowring, director of Fashion Shows at Worth Global Style Network-WGSN in London; Theo Grassl, executive board member of the Fashion Council and lecturer at the Universities of Berlin and Munich; entrepreneur, stylist, influencer and actress Margherita Maccapani Missoni; and Andrea Selvi, international business development and buying manager at Yoox Net-A-Porter Group.
About Palazzo Pucci
Palazzo Pucci has been the private residence of the Pucci family since the 15th century. From 1525 onwards, illustrious architects and artists carried out extensions and architectural interventions. All the rooms are decorated with important frescoes, paintings and sculptures, including those by Bartolomeo Ammannati, Giuseppe Bezzuoli and George Augustus Wallis. After the Second World War, in 1947, Marquis Emilio Pucci, still an officer in the Italian Air Force, created his own fashion label inspired by sportswear. He established his headquarters in the family palace and decided to use the ground-floor rooms for workshops and tailoring, while he restored the gallery, ballroom and larger salons on the first floor to present his collections, receive clients and the press, and open his Florence boutique. He immediately realized that the building was the perfect tool to contrast with the modernity of his creations. Emilio’s daughter Laudomia Pucci joined her father in 1985. Palazzo Pucci N6 would be the brand’s headquarters until 2017. In 2018, the Emilio Pucci Heritage Hub was created in Palazzo Pucci N6 to preserve the archive left by the Marquis. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Laudomia Pucci decided to create a contemporary living space on the ground floor as the perfect place to enjoying a special day, for receiving guests privately, for meetings and events, or for having lunch or dinner with partners, friends or family.
