Emanuel Ungaro

Italian by heritage but born and raised in France, Emanuel Ungaro learned to sew from his father. By his mid-twenties, he was designing at the hallowed house of Balenciaga before moving on to Courreges. In 1965, he launched his own boutique and label in Paris. Ladies flocked to him for body-skimming silhouettes, and within a few decades the line would come to encompass menswear, accessories, and several fragrances. Ungaro's frothy cocktail frocks and bold, often-mismatche­d florals were met with mixed reviews, as was an advertisement campaign in 1990 that had critics crying "bestiality" at images of a model being mounted by a dog. Other struggles over the four-decade history include financial takeovers, first by the Ferragamo Group in 1996 and then investment firm Global Asset Capital in 2003, as well as a revolving door of head designers after Ungaro's initial successor, Giambattista Valli. Though both Peter Dundas and Vincent Darre each lasted less than two seasons, hopes were high and buzz has been positive for Colombian Esteban Cortazar, appointed at the tender age of 23, to reinfuse the brand with enough buzz and Latin sensuality to attract a whole new generation of fashionistas.