Camille Miceli‘s positive attitude is a powerful calling card.

As artistic director of Emilio Pucci since 2021, Miceli has infused the brand with the same happy spirit as evidenced by the singular shows staged over the years in stunningly beautiful locations from Capri to Portofino. Despite the stress that comes with the job, the ebullient designer makes sure to keep things light, fun and upbeat.

“It’s true that I am someone quite positive, I like to enjoy myself a lot, and I think that we came on this planet not to suffer,” Miceli says. “So that’s my life goal and as soon as something becomes dark, I try to put it back into the light. Also, I am a hypochondriac and stress and anxiety can make you feel sick, and I try to avoid that.”

She credits yoga for shaping her mindset, a discipline she embraced 10 years ago, stemming from a trip to an Ayurvedic retreat in Kerala, India. Upon her return home, Miceli found a master in Arnaud Caby. “I absolutely adore him and he’s the one who gave me this passion for yoga,” she explains. So much so that when she unveiled her first collection for Pucci in Capri in April 2022, she asked Caby to lead Iyengar yoga sessions on the island as part of the two-day experiential event. Two years later in Rome, where Miceli presented the brand’s spring 2024 collection, Caby again held yoga lessons for guests.

There was no doubt in her mind that Capri, the jet-set island where founder Emilio Pucci opened his initial boutique in 1951, was the perfect place to unveil her new vision for the celebrated Italian label. That show sowed the seeds of the Dolce Vita lifestyle image she projected with every collection that followed, aligning with the founder’s own imprint on the brand.

Miceli’s modern take on the classic Pucci vibrant motifs looks fresh and glamorous on mini- and maxidresses, bandanas, foulards, pareos and swimsuits, looks that have attracted a new generation of customers and celebrities ranging from Margot Robbie and Dua Lipa to Hailey Bieber and Kylie Jenner.

“Pucci is a vitamin brand, the colors must be fun and vivid, otherwise it all becomes boring,” says Miceli, crediting the founder also for breaking up the colors with contrasting and “disruptive” touches of black. “I think that this man must have had the best life,” she segues, no doubt thinking of his jet-set days. “He was doing limbo,” she marvels with a chuckle.

Miceli arrived at Pucci with an impressive résumé, having worked with some of the most influential and talented designers in the industry, from Azzedine Alaïa and Karl Lagerfeld to Marc Jacobs.

“My love of fashion has always been there,” she says. “I’ve been surrounded by art and fashion since I was a child.” Miceli’s Italian father, Stefano, was an art book publisher and collector, while her French mother, Dominique, was a stylist who used to work with famed photographer Guy Bourdin, with a young Camille tagging along on those amazing shoots.

“I used to dress up and try on makeup with my friends on Saturdays and we would take pictures of one another, but I think every girl does that, when they’re a bit of a coquette [flirty]. It starts with Barbies at the end of the day, and I used to do the clothing for the Barbies with my grandma.”

At 15, she interned with Alaïa, who was a friend of her mother, and Miceli recalls those days when the designer’s headquarters were still at 16 Rue du Parc-Royal in Paris, established in 1984.

“He was a genius but also very difficult and hard on me because he knew me personally for a long time, since I was a kid, so he wanted me to be the best. He was like a boss, or a teacher,” she recalls. “I learned to be a maniaque [controlling hands-on] from him, to go deep inside of things, watching every detail and to never give up.” The bond was so strong that Alaïa designed Miceli’s wedding dress.

After her baccalaureate, she moved on to Chanel as a publicist and found herself alongside another design master, Karl Lagerfeld. She spent eight years with the legend, arranging his interviews, previews and casting, and helping on the production of the fashion shows.

“I’ve been always staying long in any job. I’m quite loyal, I don’t like to change all the time and I would rather concentrate on something,” she says.

Miceli says she never really strategized her career or her future, instead “living my life on a daily basis.”

“I’ve never been very ambitious. It doesn’t mean that I don’t like to succeed or that I don’t like what I’m doing of course. That said, I’m always having my ears and my eyes open. It’s very important because you need to catch the moment.”

The next moment came when she left Chanel in 1997 to work for Marc Jacobs who was creating Louis Vuitton’s first ready-to-wear line, which debuted for fall 1998.

“I was very keen to get that [job] because I thought it was amazing to have such a big brand developing a new avenue. I thought it was something that would never happen again and in fact, you don’t have any other brand that did that. My friend Naomi Campbell helped me a lot because she was very close to Marc, and she introduced me to him.”

Initially, Miceli was asked to manage the communication of the ready-to-wear collections, and she recalls enjoying “brainstorming about who was going to be the Louis Vuitton woman, defining the codes. I was coming from Chanel where you have codes that are very important, very specific, so it was really very interesting for me.”

It was Jacobs who gave Miceli a chance to design. “Marc gave me my wings,” she says. “By chance, I started designing jewelry, because that’s what Marc is like. One day I was in the studio, and he came to me and he said, ‘I need jewelry.’ Everything was so new.”

She began to design accessories and was ultimately promoted under Jacobs to fashion jewelry creative director and fine jewelry consultant, famously collaborating with Pharrell Williams on a high jewelry collection in 2008 that was based on coats of arms.

“My life would not be the same without Azzedine, Naomi, and Marc, who made me fly,” says Miceli.

“I was interested in anything that was fashion, but I never aimed to be a jewelry designer, I never projected myself in anything in particular,” she says.

In 2009, she moved over to Christian Dior, building the label’s jewelry business with hit styles like the Tribales earring, and also served as a creative consultant on leather goods. “Those earrings remain bestsellers,” she says proudly. “I think that’s the biggest gift when you go around and you see people wearing your designs.”

Miceli returned to Vuitton in 2014 and oversaw accessories including fashion jewelry, sunglasses, belts, and scarves when Nicolas Ghesquière was creative director.

“I grew up and I learned a lot because Louis Vuitton is fantastic, since it gives you the means to work. You have access to anything to develop your ideas, which is an incredible luxury.”

She also singled out Jacobs as a team builder, “a big quality in my mind. He knows how to make everyone shine.” Miceli has clearly been influenced by this approach because during her preview interviews, she always takes the time to introduce those working with her, explaining what they do. To wit, her team comprises a tight-knit group in long-standing relationships with her.

Miceli has now settled in Milan, where her home, filled with vintage pieces, reflects her passion for interior design and art.

One of her favorite artists is a friend, introduced by Alaïa: Tatiana Trouvé. “I absolutely adore her. She was recently in a solo show at the Pinault Collection at Palazzo Grassi in Venice. As a contemporary artist, I think she’s one of the best, and she’s a woman. But I mean, it’s very difficult for me to say one or two artists. People sometimes ask me, what kind of period of art do you like? It’s more about what I think is beautiful. It’s not universal. It’s a question of taste, my taste and it can’t be a rule.”

Given her half-Italian, half-French roots, Miceli hints at the future, noting that Paris “has always held a special place for me, and I always love to do something there.

“We’re still shaping the concept,” she says. “But the intention is clear, as always for Pucci the idea is to create something open and inclusive, an experience that Parisians and visitors alike can discover and enjoy.”