Fashion Fete

CLOTHES ENCOUNTER: South Philly-born designer Ralph Rucci.

by A.D. Amorosi

In the couture stratosphere, no designer breathes a more rarified air than Ralph Rucci. Respected as much for what he isn't (easily categorized) as what he is (ethereal, deceptively simple), the South Philadelphia-born Rucci, 47, has existed on his own terms since his start. "It's taken me two and a half decades to be so credible," says Rucci of his strong-willed and iconoclastic vision — one for which he will receive the Drexel University College of Media Arts & Design's Crystal Star Award for design excellence.

Independent at a time when many designers are corporate owned, Rucci — whose Fall 2005 collection was shown during February's Fashion Week in New York — surpassed his own high standards of intricate construction with his CHADO line, featuring ready-to-wear designs whose weightless suspension was matched only by the physicality of their French knotting and leather threading.

"Though overwhelming in its complexity, the ultimate effect is that it looks untouched by a human," Rucci says of his leather-on-cashmere technique that approximates the look of falling rain. "How do we translate "suspense' — its emotion — into clothing, its sensuality? How we did it was by creating an intrigue: Will this outfit fall apart?"

There's a reason he's dedicating so much energy to this project: He sees it as an attempt to bring his labor-intensive applications, finishes and execution to a new mesh of fashion consciousness and functionality. "I'm doing this because I can," he says. "Springboarding couture ideals into ready-to-wear."

It's this lofty thinking — born of his time studying philosophy and literature at Temple University — that's made Rucci elusive within fashion circles. Evolving as an artist and letting creations find him is more important than self-whoring PR. So, rather than merely being feted by Drexel's fashion department and its career development director Emil DeJohn (who oversees Crystal Star), Rucci has been an active participant in the process. He's donated countless valuable items to silent auctions to raise money for DeJohn's department, and he's given Drexel's design department yard upon yard of Rucci material.

"Getting an award? It's just egotistical," says Rucci. "Though [it's] touching to be honored, I'd like to be useful, helpful, perhaps even advisable." For the Crystal Star fashion show (Mon., May 9, 7 p.m., Philadelphia Museum of Art, 215-895-2114 for info), Rucci will create a tableau of his work along the museum's Great Stairs, where 42 mannequins will complement a klatch of living models.

"Along with offering me an opportunity to be around people who've supported and purchased my work for years in King of Prussia," says Rucci, "this tableau at this museum has allowed me to revisit my own past — alone, quietly — with the shock of the present. It's my own reality check."