Emanuel Ungaro
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Emanuel (Maffeolit) Ungaro (born 1933 in Aix-en-Provence) is a French fashion designer.
[edit] Life
Born to Italian parents who had fled to France from Brindisi because of the fascist Italian government. As a young boy, Emanuel Ungaro took to sewing like his father, Cosimo.
At the age of 22, he moved to Paris and three years later, he began designing for the House of Cristobal Balenciaga for three years before quitting to work for Courrèges. Four years later, in 1965, Emanuel Ungaro opened his own fashion house in Paris.
In 1988, at the age of 55, he married Laura Bernabei.
[edit] The House of Emanuel Ungaro
In 1968, he created his first pret-a-porter collection, Parallèle and opened a boutique at 2, avenue Montaigne in Paris. During the next 30 years, the Emanuel Ungaro House expanded to include boutiques and licencing agreements worldwide.
Ungaro launched his first menswear collection, Ungaro Uomo, in 1973, and his first perfume, Diva, 10 years later in 1983. Later followed the perfumes Senso (1987), Ungaro (1991) and Emanuel Ungaro For Men (1991).
In 1996, he formed a partnership with Salvatore Ferragamo. In 1997, Emanuel Ungaro, Salvatore Ferragamo and Bulgari created a new company: Emanuel Ungaro Parfums. The new perfumes to follow was Fleur de Diva (1997), Desnuda (2001) and Apparition (2004).
In 2005 the brand Emanuel Ungaro was sold to Pakistan-born internet tycoon, Asim Abdullah head of Global Asset Capital Investment Bank. At the time, the total wholesale revenue of products sold under the Ungaro label through licensing deals was approximately € 70 million.
