“A Luncheon Fête With Ralph Rucci”

Ralph Rucci invited me to lunch at Restaurant Sistina on Friday. Having just finished his Fall/Winter 2022 Haute Couture Collection, Ralph was in a celebratory, if not reflective, mood.

While Ralph intends to show in Paris for Spring 2023 Couture next January, this season, the 44-piece collection takes the form of a Look Book posted on his website.

Ralph’s working sketches, on the left, are enhanced by the incomparable illustrations of Bil Donovan, on the right. Bil is a long-time collaborator and dear friend of Ralph’s.

“The collection is a reconciliation with my past, present work, and the future. It’s a diluted mixture of my constant research in this wonderful métier that I’m allowed to participate in,” says Ralph, who turns 65 at the end of this month.

It is Rucci’s 41st year designing Haute Couture. While his collections evolve seasonally, they are always about evolution, techniques, and fabrics. I ask Ralph over a plate of Vitello Tonnato to describe the “essence” of this particular collection. He says, “It’s all about me and techniques, Japanese fetishism, the great cultural influences of Japanese words, and those women who have dash, grace, and enormous sensual appeal — such as Tina Chow.”

Rucci is an accomplished artist, and several other artists are constantly in Ralph’s consciousness. The man who gets top billing is Cy Twombly, “by way of Francis Bacon,” Ralph adds. Ralph says he likes to work with different proportions but will not “turn things upside down.” Different proportions have to be worked on logically, so a woman looks taller, chicer, slimmer, and can sit down in her clothes.”

It’s never easy for designers to name their favorites in a collection, but Ralph quickly describes a few. One is a petrol Taroni satin Duchess tunic cut like a “cream puff” shown over a narrow skirt of individual black grosgrain ribbons stitched to black tulle and knotted and hand fringed on each side.

Ralph says the most “extravagant” look is a gazar tunic in a muted chinoiserie design completely embroidered in natural coral and couching threads shown over a long slim hand braided and knotted skirt in cinnabar silk taffeta.

Of course, nothing is more extravagant than the embroidered black patent leather “Night Porter” coat lined in dark Barguzin sable.

The show’s finale is an homage to Ralph’s first boss, Halston. “It speaks volumes, but it whispers,” says Ralph of the floor-length vanilla ultra-suede priestess coat cut on cross-grain from front to back, shown over high-waisted vanilla ultra-suede pants. The power of simplicity!

Ralph says he is not trying to make a statement with each look, but every piece speaks for itself. It’s about artistry and technique suggestion, as well as fabric possibility. The client can change all of that. A coat can be turned into a pair of pants, and some double-face cashmere bodies can be made into coats.

“Women who buy couture do not need look after look and exit after exit of ball gowns,” says Ralph, which explains why approximately 75 percent of the collection is day clothes. “A silk raincoat is what we sold the most last season.” Ralph uses the same Taroni raincoat he started in 1980.

In preparation to receive clients after couture, Ralph took his already stunning penthouse apartment and transformed it into a couture salon. Ralph continues to create made-to-order for a loyal clientele who seeks out the meticulous attention to detail and superb craftsmanship that has come to define his work.

Last month, Ralph did an “important wedding,” dressing the bride, Alissandra Rakolta, and her mother, Dr. Marjorie Fisher Furman. It took place at the Musee Rodin with a reception at the George V.

“I think it’s the most extravagant couture project I have ever conceived, yet with the utmost distillation and discretion”

Ralph Rucci

Ralph has only made five wedding dresses in his career. “I do not have the correct psychiatric training to become involved with this type of process.” He took this on only because it was his dear friend and her daughter, who he has seen grow into a beautiful, kind, generous philanthropist.

The dress is made in a slightly bright, eight-ply, dry silk crepe. The front and back are of sheer tulle. The base of the back yoke, at the very bottom of the spine, is a concave-convex shape in silk satin duchess with trapunto stitching that echoes the dress’s curves. The shirt tail forms the train, with duchess satin dust ruffles to protect the dress. In place of buttons that close the front over the back, Ralph used South Sea Island Baroque Pearls from jeweler Dean Harris.

The silk tulle veil is embroidered with a personal letter to the bride and groom in Ralph’s handwriting. While Ralph would not say precisely what he wrote, he explains that the words he uses in these texts are always a mixture of spiritual and sexual ideas. FYI, there is a white wool and silk dress and coat with script embroidery on Ralph’s Fall/Winter 2022 Couture Collection.

Ralph is always focused on his métier and is not one for idle gossip or critiquing others’ work. I asked Ralph what he thought about the state of fashion, specifically, the couture. He did not mince words. “All the couture collections are now mirrored in society, and the degree of unsophistication and the lack of technique erase the history of couture. That is what I am against”.

Ralph points out that many sex stores around the world sell latex and fetishist clothes. This is not couture. He believes couture is here to stay, but there has been a significant shift in pricing. His start at $25,000 and go up.

“After the drought, we can’t be afraid of not thinking luxuriously,” notes Rucci, who feels lucky to have such incredible, intelligent, and dedicated people in his atelier for the past 41 years. He says he will never lose his desire for creativity. Ralph emphatically states that he will never go back to designing ready-to-wear. “The thievery and the backstabbing. It’s all a power play”.

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