Pino Lancetti, 78, Fashion Designer
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Italian fashion designer Pino Lancetti, best known for his 1960s printed fabrics inspired by artworks, died yesterday in Rome.
Lancetti started his career in ceramics and then moved to fashion.
Highlights of his career include dresses inspired by Modigliani’s portraits of women and a military-style collection in 1963.
Known for being in fashion’s vanguard, he was among the first in Italy to take inspiration from Chinese clothing, as well as “folk” fashions. He often used painted fabrics inspired by artists such as Picasso and Kandinsky. He was known in Italy as the “artist-couturier.”
From his second-story showroom on Rome’s Via Condotti, he sold high-priced hand-beaded and embroidered dresses to an international elite.
“His ability to elaborate on the themes of painting is his real trademark and places him among the more original designers,” said the deputy mayor of Rome, Mariapia Garavaglia, in a written condolence message.
Lancetti retired in 2001, and sold his fashion house to Tuscan industrialist Ugo Paci.
He devoted his last years to painting.
