There is one name that stands between the well known, typically English names connected with the dazzling fashion scene of 1970s London: Cleonice Capece. Born in Salerno in 1936, she moved to Rome in the early 50s, even though, due to her studies in England, she would often split her time between Italian and British capitals. The year 1959, marks an important date since Capece makes both her return to Italy as well as starts a significant collaboration with Harrods. For Harrods, the famous London-based retailer, Capece becomes the mediator between Italian manufacturers and industries and English head offices.
As the story goes, while she was wandering around the centre of Italy sourcing fabrics for Harrods, she started thinking about a more-than-slight change in her career: with a strong personal vision, wit and her consciousness of the market, she decided to set up her own fashion label. She opens her show-room/atelier in 1961 in Via Gregoriana – made famous because of another illustrious lodger, Valentino. Her first collection is colourful, joyous and fresh, holding together Italian savoir-faire with a deep awareness of what fashion was after the glorious years of Parisian couture, and how it was evolving all around Europe. But the spiritual home of her designs is, no doubt, London. Capece moves her atelier to London in 1974, maintaining the manufacture in Italy. The bridge she was wisely able to build up, between Italy and London, allowed her to establish her name in both countries and present herself as an ambassador of eclectic and distinguishable style.
She used to describe her style as ‘very international. The clothes are designed in London, made in Italy, and can go anywhere in the world. Clothes should be classic but have flair. They should give a woman a sense of ease and elegance, not make them foolish or gaudy.’ The interest in ‘what women want’ drives her production throughout the years, and to better understand the needs of women. She herself is her first muse, always enthusiastic about what life was giving her. Her openness brought her to collaborate as a consultant with numerous brands and retailers, even after the closure of her eponymous atelier in the 80s.
She likes to think about her career in fashion as a fortuitous accident, and that’s why she has decided to entitle her new book, published by Antique Collectors’ Club, “Fashion by Chance”. The book retraces her life and personal story, describing fashion through the eyes of one of the role players of Italian Prêt-à-Porter. The book contains also a large amount of visual material, most of it unpublished before, that documents the wonderful story Capece has finally decided to tell. Sharp taste, intelligent approach to fashion, and a trained eye for understanding the contemporary shifts and changes in taste and needs, seem to be the ingredients that made Cleonice Capece succeed in the fashion industry. More than just being in the right place at the right time, chance provides opportunities: the matter is, really, to be able to seize them opportunities and turn them into successful stories.
