Timeless designs, powerful artistry and a magical fusion of creativity, beauty and experimental techniques are the cardinal principles of Roberto Capucci’s art.
A great number of exhibitions have been dedicated to the work of the Italian designer and in two of them - held at the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum in 1991 and at the Prado in Madrid in 2002 - his designs were compared to Medieval armours. 
Every event dedicated to Capucci always managed to explore different aspects of his most vital works. “Fantasie Guerriere” (Warrior Fantasies), a recent exhibition organised at the Caraglio Filatoio, near Cuneo, explores again the connection between Capucci’s designs and armours, but this time the curators decided to focus on samurai armours from the 16th to the 19th century.
The design of the armours, their colours and the Japanese artisans’ clever use of silk are the three elements that provide the main connection with Roberto Capucci’s works. In his creations the designer often followed the principles of the Japanese craftsmen, harmoniously balancing colours, fabrics and shapes and bearing in mind the two keywords that characterised the use of silk in samurai armours, softness and resistance.
A connoisseur of fine silks, Capucci always chose for his creations the most precious fabrics, such as ermesin taffeta, a fabric hand-made on looms from the 1500s, or the sauvage, a type of raw silk. 
These materials allowed him to create dresses characterised by sculptural effects, in which woven satin bands reflect different nuances once they are hit by light, exalting in this way theatrical chromatic effects, layers of fabrics are over-imposed one on the other like the steel plates of an armour and pleated taffetas are used like metal to form ribs and multi-layered structures.
To know more about the exhibition you can read my article about it on Dazed Digital.
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