Originally posted by The Daily
CFDA Nominee Profile: Ralph Rucci for Chado Ralph Rucci
"The nomination is quite intense for me because it shows that a certain obscurity or a certain path that doesn't have to do with conformity or sameness in our industry is recognized."
NEW YORK: Friday, June 04, 2004
Name: Ralph Rucci for Chado Ralph Rucci
Nominee: Womenswear Designer of the Year
Bio:
Received a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy and literature from Temple University
Studied fashion at the Fashion Institute of Technology
Opened his business, Chado Ralph Rucci, in 1994 (Chado is the name of a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, meant to symbolize respect, grace and integrity)
In 2002, Rucci was invited by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture to show his first haute couture collection.
This is your first ever CFDA nomination. How do you feel?
Really quite proud. It’s an extraordinary occurrence to be nominated for an award and I think for me the nomination in and of itself is the award. What I’m trying to do is maintain the same level of focus that I’ve always had in my work so that it doesn’t become sort of a weight. I’ve only done all of this for myself and if you lose that simplicity, then you take a turn that’s not correct. I’ve had lots of fun putting together the guests at my table; I love them and I’m going to feel loved and we’ll have a lovely evening and see how it all unfolds. I’m also extraordinarily flattered to be in the same category with designers that I greatly respect.
What does it mean to you to be nominated?
I suppose it’s a validation for the style that you’re cutting within your craft. My design has been a bit more obscure, and so the nomination is quite intense for me because it shows that a certain obscurity or a certain path that doesn’t have to do with conformity or sameness in our industry is recognized and perhaps other people who take such a similar path will also be nominated.
Who is the woman you design for?
I gear towards a woman that first and foremost thinks. She could choose anything in the world, from haute couture at any house, anywhere; she can go to any atelier and do anything. And because she might have a body of knowledge and a certain self awareness, the discerning ability that has occurred for years, whether she’s young or elderly, has allowed her to select and choose items that magnify her own sense of style and her personality. I leave that whole area of trends and fashion and so on and get into the area called style.
What are Ralph Rucci signatures?
I think the ways in which we cut clothes become our signature. I don’t sit down and design clothes with the normal shoulder, side, seam construction with the set-in sleeve. We take the body as a three-dimensional concept and use seams in a biomorphic nature to clothe the body and have the seams almost act as [a] relief to tell the story of my season. This season, for example, it’s all based on the center vertebrae or the front sternum with the ribcage. The couture collection that I am working on right now, which will pour into ready-to-wear, has to do with a more holistic approach to cut. I think that that is what I’m known for and what I work on the most.
Have you ever thought about setting up your own shop?
No, because the labor laws in Paris are so restrictive that they would break the momentum. You have a certain number of hours a week, and it would break the momentum of what we could accomplish. I have friends who have couture houses in Paris so I know from them.
What about taking your ready-to-wear show to Paris?
We’ve experimented with the idea of showing ready-to-wear in Paris, but that’s another zoo. In a week you have 150 shows and I find it claustrophobic in New York as it is. So to go to Paris to do that is not…it’s a conveyor belt where it all loses meaning. So that doesn’t work for my plan in the future. I prefer, quite frankly, to take our shows and make them more intimate…I want to get away from the machine process.
Why do you deserve to win this award?
The verb “deserve” is a presumptuous kind of word. Only my Gods are capable of making a decision for me to win. Someone who doesn’t know me would find that to be possibly a big platitude, but they don’t know me. If I win, it’s wonderful. If not, I’ll be in Paris a month later showing my couture on my route. I’m not weighed down or side tracked by anything. I have no obstacles; many people have tried to give me obstacles and stand in my way, but I do exactly what I want and how I want to do it.
Where would you like to see yourself in ten years?
A bit more calm and resolved; someone a bit more self-aware spiritually, less worrisome, finding more of my real purpose and reason, and understanding that; being more in communication with my guides.
JIM SHI
he sounds so much in tune with his work 
