Scope and Contents
Stewardship of the collection is shared between two repositories on Cornell’s main campus in Ithaca, NY. The garment portion of the collection, which comprises 498 items representing 359 looks, is stewarded by the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection (CF+TC) within the College of Human Ecology. The documentary portion of the collection, which comprises 125 cubic feet of paper-based material, is stewarded by the Kheel Center within the School of Industrial Labor Relations.
The documentary portion of the collection includes 3 lookbooks, approximately 8,000 sketches, 3,000 patterns, thousands of fabric swatches, hundreds of photographs, and a sampling of business records. The sketches date from Rucci’s earliest professional work in the 1980s through Chado’s final season of Spring 2015. The 3,000 patterns, which represent about 1,900 unique designs, were custom-made to the specifications of approximately 400 clients. The earliest patterns in the collection date to Spring 1999.
Dates
- 1978-2015
Creator
- Albrecht, Bob (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference archivist for access to these materials.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.
Biographical / Historical
Ralph Rucci (1957—) was born to a Roman Catholic family in an Italian American neighborhood of South Philadelphia. He studied literature and philosophy at Temple University and obtained his BA in 1978. He then attended the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City, where he received his Associate in Applied Science in 1980.
After graduating from FIT, Rucci briefly worked for the American designer Halston. In November 1981, he held his first made-to-order runway show at the Westbury Hotel in New York. In 1984, in partnership with his FIT classmate Vivian Van Natta, he launched his ready-to-wear label ‘Ralph Rucci New York,’ which ceased operations in 1987. In 1994, he relaunched under the label ‘Chado,’ which then became ‘Chado Ralph Rucci.’ Chadō (茶道) is the traditional practice of Japanese tea ceremony.
In July 2002, Rucci became the first American designer since the 1930s to present his own couture collection at Paris Fashion Week. Under the Chado label, he designed twelve biannual couture collections: Fall/Winter 2002 to Fall/Winter 2007. Concurrently, he produced bi- or triannual ready-to-wear collections. In November 2014, he announced his exit from the label. The company’s final ready-to-wear season was Spring 2015. In 2016, Rucci relaunched under the label ‘RR331.’ He returned to Paris Fashion Week for Fall/Winter 2019.
During his time at Chado, Rucci cultivated a loyal network of customers and industry advocates. The quality of his garments made him a fixture of the word-of-mouth elite. Among his primary influences, he cites Cristobal Balenciaga, Charles James, and Elsa Peretti. Artists he regularly credits in his designs include Cy Twombly, Francis Bacon, Antoni Tàpies, and Dana Yves. Pauline de Rothschild and Diana Vreeland also served as formative influences. In addition, Rucci’s designs regularly incorporate elements of East and Southeast Asian art, sculpture, and architecture.
Extent
125 cubic feet.
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The RR Collection consists of sketches, patterns, photographs, fabric swatches, and production records from the atelier of American fashion designer RR.
Arrangement
The documentary portion of the collection is organized into three series: 1) Lookbooks; 2) Papers; 3) Patterns.
Most items featured in the lookbooks correspond to pieces held in the garment portion of the collection, which arrived with no documented original order. For this reason, items stewarded by the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection (CF+TC) have been arranged and accessioned based on lookbook order.
The sketches are housed in their original order by season and style number. The style number is a four or five-digit code that links each sketch to its corresponding garment and pattern. Sketch numbering becomes consistent in 1995 and remains consistent through 2015. Rucci’s couture and ready-to-wear collections employ different numbering schemes.
The Ready-to-Wear Fall/Winter 1995 season begins with the style number 1000. With each successive season, the style number resets to the next cardinal thousand. Spring 1996 begins at 2000, Fall/Winter 1996 at 3000, etc.
Unlike ready-to-wear, the style numbers for Rucci’s couture seasons are continuous; they do not reset at a higher round number with the beginning of each season. In this collection, Rucci’s couture style numbers extend from 7360-8160 (Spring 2004 to Fall/Winter 2007). This collection lacks the sketches for Rucci’s first three couture seasons: Fall/Winter 2002, Spring 2003, and Fall/Winter 2003.
Sketches that correspond to garments represented in the lookbooks and/or held in the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection have been removed from their original order to be housed together for easy access by patrons. These sketches have been processed at the item level; all other sketches have been processed at the folder level.
Processing Information
Garment titles:
Original garment titles were sourced from production paperwork, lookbooks, and documentation on and within the pattern envelopes. In the absence of a recorded title, the archivists transcribed descriptive text from the pattern’s corresponding sketch. Original titles are denoted with a colon and created titles are denoted with a comma.Original title: 19151: The hand-cut interwoven pagoda neck siren
Created title: 7512, aubergine cashmere knit caftan
As an exception, if the caption on a sketch begins with the definite article ‘the,’ then it is inferred to be the intended title.
Untranscribable text is denoted within square brackets: 23119, coral [?] with coral alligator bodice
Inferred text is also denoted within square brackets: Horizontal dark Barguz[in] sab[le]
If a sketch contains no text or insufficient text, garment type is denoted within parentheses: 10062 (dress)
If no textual or visual information is available, the pattern is listed as ‘unknown.’
For garments stewarded by the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection (CF+TC), some titles have been modified to enhance clarity and searchability: variant loanword spellings standardized, compound adjectives hyphenated, and abbreviations expanded (DF = double-faced). Title source can be found in the Processing Information field of each sketch. If a look has multiple style numbers with near-identical titles, they have been condensed into a single title:
13135: The shagreen shell
13136: The shagreen cardigan
13138: The shagreen cuffs
=The shagreen shell, cardigan, and cuffs
If a look has multiple style numbers with diverse titles, they are separated by a semicolon:
18152: The fluted mesh jersey long sleeve jewel neck
18153: The Twombly infanta skirt
=The fluted mesh jersey long sleeve jewel neck; The Twombly infanta skirt
For these reasons, searching the CF+TC catalog by style number or object ID shall yield better results than searching by garment title.
Series I: Lookbooks
The lookbooks have been transferred from their original plastic binders into acid-free binder boxes. All lookbook images have been labeled with their style number(s). If the style number is unknown, the image has been labeled with the item’s corresponding CF+TC object ID.Series II: Papers
All material has been rehoused in acid-free folders. Approximately 2,000 sketches have been placed in polypropylene sleeves to contain excessive marker bleed. Sketches that correspond to the garment portion of the collection have been placed in mylar L-sleeves to support frequent use.Dates: In the fashion industry, Fall/Winter and Resort seasons extend across the new year. In this collection, Fall/Winter and Resort sketches may be interchangeably dated by year of production or the subsequent year. For example, there are two seasons of sketches labeled Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2005; one represents the 2004-2005 Fall/Winter season and the other the 2005-2006 Fall/Winter season. For this reason, style number is a better indicator of chronology than date.
Fabric swatches: Approximately 1,300 sketches entered the collection with fabric swatches pinned or stapled to the paper. About 400 swatches have been removed to preserve the integrity of the paper and fabric. Swatches were removed for the following reasons:
- Weight
- Size
- Material deterioration (most common in plastics)
- Discoloring the sketch (most common in leathers)
- Obscuring text or segments of the illustration
- Delicate and/or detachable components, such as beads, sequins, and feathers
- Marker staining from the sketch itself
- Pre-existing damage
Each detached swatch has been housed in a half or quarter-size archival envelope printed with an image of the sketch in its original state. Each envelope is housed alongside its corresponding sketch so patrons can access the physical swatch and an image of the sketch prior to the swatch’s removal.
Restricted Material: Some administrative and financial documents have been redacted to safeguard personally identifiable information (PII) and sensitive financial information. This mainly applies to social security numbers, private phone numbers, and financial routing information. Redacted photocopies of these documents have been made available. A small amount of documentation relating to trunk shows and travel expenses has been restricted due to the quantity of PII, and because the financial information is incidental in nature.
Disposition: A small amount of financial documentation was shredded: wire transfer forms, credit card authorization forms, and receipts with redundant information that included unredacted credit card numbers.
Series III: Patterns
Stainless steel sewing pins are present throughout the patterns. Pins that served the function of paperclips have been removed. Pins enjoining corresponding pattern pieces have been left in place and secured with silicone earring backs. Plastic bags have been replaced with acid-free envelopes.Dates: Patterns are dated by order submission, not garment completion. Spring collections were made available for order in the fall of the previous calendar year; Fall/Winter collections were made available for order in the spring of the same calendar year. Most garments would have been ordered within a year of production, but clients were at liberty to order patterns from past seasons.
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives Repository