Pescucci 1943
Gabriella Pescucci (1943) is an Italian costume designer
Gabriella Pescucci, winner of the ’94 Oscar for The Age of Innocence (Scorsese), author of 2,000 costumes for The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Gabriella Pescucci is one of the most sought-after Italian costume designers in international cinema. Together with Milena Canonero and Franca Squarciapino.
The apprenticeship at Sartoria Tirelli and work in the cinema
Gabriella Pescucci studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, with an apprenticeship at the Tirelli tailoring shop (“I grew up among the clothes of Death in Venice”, she says of herself), of which she is now also a partner. As assistant to Piero Tosi and Pierluigi Pizzi, over the course of her career, she has linked her name to highly successful art films and blockbusters.
From Fellini’s Prova d’orchestra and La città delle donne to Scola’s cinema (Passione d’amore, Brave New World, What Time Is). And then from Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America to big productions like The Name of the Rose or The Scarlet Letter. Her eclecticism allows her to easily cross different eras, dressing Mary and Saint Joseph in Per amore, solo per amore or designing the eighteenth-century costumes of Night and the Moment.
Gabriella Pescucci in addition to cinema
You alternate cinematographic and theatrical activity. In ’72, for example, you worked on a Norma at La Scala directed by Bolognini. Then in ’92 she, she at La Traviata directed by Liliana Cavani.
On the occasion of the extraordinary Palio of the Jubilee, the municipality of Siena entrusts her with the remake of the 360 costumes for the participants and for the 17 districts of the historical procession. Pescucci takes inspiration from the sketches inspired by the historical period between the end of the 1400s and the beginning of the 16th century, already used by Olla, Manichelli and Pollai for the previous version, from 1981.
Awards and exhibitions
At the Textile Museum in Prato, on display is the mud-coloured mole fur cape worn by Michelle Pfeiffer in The Age of Innocence, the film for which the costume designer won the ’93 Oscar. The exhibition is dedicated to the work of Sartoria Teatrale Tirelli for cinema.
In 2006 she won the Silver Ribbon for the costumes of The Chocolate Factory, a Tim Burton film starring Johnny Depp. In 2009 some of her creations were exhibited in the exhibition “The Oscar atelier” in Gorizia, dedicated to the costumes of the Tirelli tailoring for the big cinema.
