Versace, Wang, Dolce & Gabbana, Gaultier. These names catch ears in minivan land and among the lunch crowd at Tony Luke’s.
But have you heard of Rucci?
Probably not — and that’s fine with Ralph Rucci, who has no designs on becoming a "household word."
In July, the South Philadelphia native became the first American to show his own clothes at the Paris haute couture shows since Mainbocher conquered the City of Light before World War II. Women’s Wear Daily labeled the 54 outfits he presented in Paris "quite beautiful." The New York Times‘ Cathy Horyn called the collection a "success."
Despite this honor, the couture debut is not the highlight of the designer’s career. Rucci doesn’t believe in highlights.
"I have no intention of ‘topping’ this. I have intentions of evolving," Rucci says in a phone interview from his Seventh Avenue offices in New York. "That’s how I like to live my life. The only consistency in fashion is change. This [company] is not about change. This is about evolution."
Born on the 2100 block of South Lambert Street, Rucci soon moved with his family to 21st Street near Porter. Better schools lured them to the Main Line. Like salmon, the Rucci family swam against the tide and returned to the old neighborhood for Rucci’s high-school years. Rucci’s parents still call South Philly home.
The designer might stay close to his roots but, in truth, most people back home wouldn’t be able to afford his creations.
Fashion editors use words like "elegant," "sophisticated" and "refined" to describe the gowns and suits that can sell for more than $75,000. Rucci uses the finest fabrics and materials such as cashmere and sable mink, and precise tailoring to create his distinct architectural looks.
It would be easy to call the designer — a spiritual man prone to sprinkle conversation with references to artists Cy Twombly and Richard Serra — pretentious. But that would be wrong. He says he simply is an artist who cares about his work.
Rucci creates pieces that a woman can use to enlarge her wardrobe. His clothes are not trendy. This season’s gown will work well with a coat he created two years ago.
"What I decided to do with haute couture and what I do with my ready-to-wear is create clothes that show extraordinary complication, that are comfortable, work in a woman’s life and mirror the woman," he says. "Most importantly, we attempt to infuse them with a certain spiritual awareness. And they don’t enter the room before you do. It’s quite difficult to maintain that balance of consistency and change."
Rucci’s own life has seen drastic changes. Nine years ago, he was on welfare. His first design company went hundreds of dollars into debt, but he did not declare bankruptcy. No, he went to work. He continued to design masterpieces for clients and paid off his creditors.
In 1994, the designer started CHADO Ralph Rucci, his ready-to-wear collection. In an industry of deficits, CHADO Ralph Rucci enjoyed a 60-percent increase in sales between 2000 and 2002.
He credits his family for all of this.
"My mother and my father have always allowed my sister and me to feel that there is no such thing as limited potential. You can do absolutely anything you wish. My mother and father were just genius about that. I praise them for that, I honor them for that," says Rucci, the son of a butcher. "Ever since I was a kid, they just instilled this ambition and belief that the world is your oyster and you’re a fool if you don’t pick it up and eat it."
After graduating from St. Joseph’s Prep, Rucci headed to New York University to study philosophy. He called a scary part of TriBeCa home for about a year, then left New York and became an English major/philosophy minor at Temple University.
While researching a paper for an art class in 1974, Rucci stumbled upon some Irving Penn fashion photographs and a career. He devoured Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine in pursuit of a life in fashion. As he read, he experimented. Rucci would take his mother’s sheets, drape them on his sister, and cut. While at Temple, he also was making clothes.
He still returned to New York for visits. During one of these trips, a brazen Rucci went to the offices of Halston, who was beginning his trip to fashion-icon status, and told the designer’s staff that he wanted to work for the company.
Following graduation from Temple and a year at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Rucci indeed began his career in Halston’s workroom. That was in 1978; three years later, he started his own company. A loan from his aunt helped fund Rucci’s first collection.
Today, CHADO Ralph Rucci has many fans in Europe, Dallas and Beverly Hills, and his clothes are sold at Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. Rucci says he has no need for others’ opinions of his work, including the fashion press, but most editors respect his designs.
"Ralph Rucci uses the most amazing fabrics to create clothes that are elegant and unique and above all, wearable," says Gretchen Gunlocke, fashion director at Town & Country magazine. "Ralph Rucci’s designs give a woman a quiet sophistication."
And those in a position to deliver Rucci’s collections to the public also are taking notice.
"This is Ralph Rucci’s moment," says Joan Kaner, the main buyer of high-end clothes for Neiman Marcus. "His clothes are beautifully made — even the ready-to-wear collection is of couture quality — and have an elegance which is missing from many of the designers’ collections today. His clothes fill a void for women who are sophisticated and have been unable to find suitable clothing for their lifestyles."
Even with the fanfare, Rucci’s philosophy on the industry has not changed.
"My work’s goal is the same. I try to improve, magnify and, I suppose, refine and polish the same concepts every season," he says. "I don’t have a particular interest to be a household word or to have clothes being talked about on a magazine stand in Utah. The more you put out there, the more you have to allow to be taken away, so I still need to keep a lot toward my heart."
