PORTOFINO, Emilio Pucci Spring 2025 Camille Miceli’s Pucci is Summer Escapism at Its Chicest

Portofino, While the world buzzes with economic dips and trade tensions, Camille Miceli is on a different wavelength entirely. The Pucci artistic director is crafting escapism with a capital E, offering up a radiant, joy-fueled vision of femininity that feels like a deep breath of sea air.

For Spring 2025, she staged her show at La Cervara — a former abbey turned dreamscape on the coastal road to Portofino. Perched over the Tigullio Gulf, with Renaissance gardens and a wisteria-covered pergola that catches the sunset just right, the location looked like it had leapt out of a Slim Aarons photo — or a well-curated Instagram feed. The 12th-century estate became the perfect mise-en-scène for 230 golden-hour guests, wrapped in Miceli’s signature vision: prints, craftsmanship, and that effortless Pucci ease. The collection itself was built around Marmo — a swirled, sea-reflecting print Miceli revived back in 2022 and continues to evolve. This time, she softened it into delicate sorbet tones and powdery pinks, layered with black wave motifs on featherweight silks. Elsewhere, the print shimmered as sequins or peeked out in embroidered seashells — hand-sewn by Pucci artisans who were still at work backstage, one shell at a time. It’s couture-level handiwork disguised as beachy chic.

This season brought a shift toward sophistication. More black than we’re used to seeing in a Pucci lineup, often contrasted with the house’s beloved prints: a flash at a hem, a flicker in a fringe, a whisper under a sheer cape. New iterations of house codes—Stella, Maddalena, Iride, Orchidee—emerged not with reinvention but with reverence. “I change the colors but never the names,” Miceli said. Legacy, honored.

Shapes were fluid but clever. Cotton poplin “balloon” tops contrasted with narrow skirts in a playful play on proportion. Trompe-l’oeil dresses were designed to trick the eye — two pieces that are really one. And jewelry? Not quite. More like silver body art: cuff-bracelets, necklaces, and tattoo-like details echoing the Marmo swirls. Even the sandal laces twisted up the leg like ink.

Portofino joins Florence and Rome in Miceli’s growing list of destination shows — part of her vision to position Pucci not just as a label, but a lifestyle. Past presentations have unfolded like mini-vacations in Capri and Saint Moritz, celebrating the jet-set history of the brand with an eye to the future.

But this wasn’t just a postcard-perfect runway. The casting was just as intentional — icons like Naomi Campbell (who closed the show), Kristen McMenamy, and Karen Elson walked alongside a new generation of Pucci muses: digital girls who danced in their seats to Nada’s soundtrack. The message was clear: Pucci is for women who want to feel extraordinary, and aren’t afraid to show it.

Miceli says she doesn’t design for locations — but if Pucci had a house, this would be it. “The gardens, the view, what more do you want?” she asked. And as light bounced off the sea and the marble tiles underfoot, you couldn’t help but agree.

As America remains one of Pucci’s strongest markets — with a Houston boutique opening this month — the brand is embracing a “see now, buy now” model, perfectly in tune with sunny-day wardrobes and lives lived in real time. The Portofino boutique also got a makeover, courtesy of Pierre Passebon, in a continuation of Pucci’s refined evolution.

“This brand is about joy and femininity, yes — but also about individuality,” Miceli noted. “Women don’t want to look like everyone else. They come to Pucci to feel something.”

Even Marisa Berenson was swept up in the moment. “Camille is so talented. She’s brought Pucci into now, but kept the DNA,” she said, wearing a mother-of-pearl and crystal necklace from her own line, which she now creates from her oasis in Marrakech. “But I love being back here. Portofino holds so many memories for me.”

If Miceli’s Pucci woman has a home, a life, a feeling — this was it, captured in one golden evening. Sun, sea, silk, and soul.

WR,

Rozhin Shafaghati