Capucci's Extravagant Outfits on Display

The Ljubljana City Museum is showcasing an exhibition of sculpted dresses by top Italian fashion designer Roberto Capucci. The highlight among some 40 robes on display are dresses that were featured at the Venice Biennial in 1995.

Capucci finds his inspiration in nature. Nature thrills him the most because it is a form of art man has no power over, he can only admire it, Capucci said ahead of the evening opening.

He has been working in the fashion business for 58 years. Apart from designing clothes for the market, he been experimenting with the form and volume of clothes from the start.

He finds a special challenge in designing dresses-sculptures for museums, the art he focused on in the 1980s. City Museum Director Blaz Persin says the exhibits are in fact dialogue between a dress as a sculpture and a dress as a piece of clothing.

Apart from the forms, colours and the mysteries of nature, Capucci's inspiration comes from any other thing of beauty that moves him. He follows nature even in his choice of materials. All of his robes are made of the best silks, because he adores their rustling sound.

The designer said he was thrilled to be exhibiting in Ljubljana, a city that charmed him upon his first visit. While he displays his dresses in fashion capitals worldwide, his creations are part of permanent exhibitions of prominent museums like Florence's Pitti Palace, Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Asked which women he had dressed, he said all major Italian actresses, except for Gina Lollobrigida and Monica Vitti. He has always liked women with a personality, who know what they want.

Along with the show in the City Museum, which is on display until 18th May, the nearby gallery Vzigalica features sketches for Capucci's robes. The accompanying programme also includes a fashion show by design students.