Bride of Quietness

Like the poet said, Beauty is truth

And truth, beauty

That is all ye know on earth,

and all ye need to know.

Ralph Rucci, as I have stated here many times before, is one of my very favorite designers. His line is called Chado, which is the name for the formal Japanese tea ceremony. It's an apt name -- Rucci's clothes have a quiet grace that echoes the stately beauty of classical Japanese art.

Unlike a lot of my favorite designers (Miuccia Prada springs to mind as an example), Rucci doesn't drop a lot of design bombs -- his collections are remarkably consistent from season to season, and always recognizable. The silhouette is nearly always quite simple, almost severe, with very subtle embellishments.

One of his favorite motifs is this sort of sheer insert. Other hallmarks include unusual, complicated, detailed seaming and extremely rich fabrics (lots of double-faced cashmere and gorgeous silks).

This makes his clothes both unbelievably beautiful and ungodly expensive.

These are investment pieces (again, are you listening, Alexander Wang?) of the highest order, which is what you would (and should) expect when you're shelling out four figures for a jacket. Rucci's color palette is primarily neutrals and consistent from season to season. If you have the means to procure them, these are the sorts of clothes that form the spine of a lifetime wardrobe -- the perfect pair of pants, the jacket that finishes every outfit to perfection, the cocktail dress that can be worn for twenty years. You don't see Rucci on trendistas, because he doesn't follow trends. Rucci has his own inner design compass that he follows with remarkable consistency and purity. He's not as well-known as many designers, doesn't get that red carpet press, doesn't show up on the cover of Vogue. He just quietly, beautifully works away making stunning, perfect clothing season after season.


The Spring 2010 collection featured several pieces with all these wonderful feathery bits, which you can imagine pleased Style Spy no end.

Just love all that peeping out from underneath the hem, and love the swing-y bell of that skirt. Note also that sheer inset at the waist -- I couldn't find a picture of the back of this dress, but I'll bet the whole thing is sheer. Lovely.

Rucci often features several pieces in printed fabrics in every collection. According to Nicole Phelps's review on Style.com, the Spring 2010 collection was inspired by Pina Bausch, the choreographer/dancer who passed away this year and I believe that is her actual photograph printed on the dress above.

I'll spare you my usual nattering on -- these clothes don't really need a lot of commentary. There aren't any drastic design shifts or statements to comment on, just really, really beautiful, finely-crafted clothes.

Rucci's clothes are my aspirational garments. Bargainista shopper that I am, I don't run into his stuff all that often, and even discounted it tends to be out of my range.

Oh, that makes me dizzy, it's so beautiful. I understand why starlets don't wear his clothes -- they aren't flashy enough for the red carpet, they don't obviously compete with the skin-tight spangles favored by most folks at awards ceremonies. But imagine being the woman in a room filled with Elie Saab excess and Badgely Mischka foofaraws, wearing the black dress above. Serene, I think, would be a good adjective to describe you. The photographers might not be climbing over themselves to take a photo of you. But I do not think you would care.


And my favorite, saved for last

Perfect. Truth, beauty, and pockets. What more do you need?


Images: Style.com, Elle.com

Transformative Practice

"Chado" is a Japanese word describing the ritual of the tea ceremony. It is a tradition strongly associated with Zen Buddhism and Japanese philosophy. The Seattle Urasenke Association describes it thusly: "It is characterized by simplicity, naturalism, profundity, imperfection, and asymmetry. It emphasizes restrained, unadorned objects and architectural space, and celebrates the beauty of natural materials given expression through skilled craftsmanship."

If you are a fan of Ralph Rucci, as I am, that description makes perfect sense when applied to the aesthetics of the clothes he designs under the label Chado Ralph Rucci. If you're not a fan of Ralph Rucci, you're wrong. Or maybe you just haven't been properly introduced.

Ralph Rucci makes things like this:

It's deceptively simple. Some folks might even say that it doesn't look like much.

And I see their point, sort of -- it's not flashy.

It's just flawless.

Rucci's evolution from season to season is less about radical changes in silhouette or palette than the detailing on his exquisitely crafted clothes.

Each season there seems to be a distinct technique of seaming, a fabric treatment, a new way of insetting contrasting material into the garment. It's subtle. Everything Rucci does is subtle.

Subtle, and luxe.

In keeping with the principals of simplicity & dignity embodied in the ritual Rucci chose as the name of his line, I'm mostly going to just let you bask in this gorgeous stuff.

The handbag line is new this season. They're exquisite, just like everything else.

(I don't even want to know how much that costs. This line? Is not cheap. Rucci's clothes have to have one of the highest price points of any American designer. The stratospheric quality and the timelessness of his design go a long way toward justifying those prices, but make no mistake -- there are places where you could go to college for a couple of years for the cost of one of his evening gowns.)

The shoes are usually pretty perfect, too.

Are they Loubies? I don't know who does his shoes. I just know that I would wear those boots for the rest of my life.

Rucci is famous for incorporating art into his designs.

His color palette is basically entirely neutral, with maybe a few pops of color in any given show.

Note the glossy softness of this fabric. I've seen a few pieces from Chado up close -- that is a double-faced cashmere so soft I could seriously sleep in jammies made of it.

You don't see much of his stuff in magazines -- it's not trendy or flashy enough. Nor do you see it on the red carpet. The only time I can recall anyone Hollywood-famous appearing in Chado is Debra Messing at the SAG Awards in 2003. (For which choice she earned my undying affection, if not a free fashion pass. No one gets a pass.) As far as I know, the only place to get these clothes is Neiman Marcus & Bergdorf Goodman. There does not seem to be a boutique of any sort -- the sorts of women who keep Rucci in business are the sort that just make a phone call when they need something new, women like Deeda Blair and Martha Stewart. These folks are so exclusive that I cannot even find a website. In 2002, he was asked by the Chambre Syndicale in France to be the first American to show at the Paris couture shows in more than 40 years, and a great deal of Rucci's business is couture -- custom-made garments for a very elite clientele

Oh, dear lord, this destroys me.

My feather thing is well-established by now, right?

Come on, admit it. It's fierce. You love it. You wish you had both the occasion and the stones to wear it. I know I do.

There's so much more. You need to just go look at the whole collection, and don't miss all the detail shots, which are important. It's really only in close-up that the breathtaking beauty of some of these clothes becomes apparent. This is real luxury, the kind that doesn't proclaim itself in any way except by being the very highest quality it can be. Even the label in these clothes is subtle -- it's a white-on-white embroidered tag, you almost have to already know what it is to recognize it.

I just hope is that someday I recognize it in my own closet...



Photos: Style.com, elle.com