Leda “Lee” Pucci, co-founder of the Pucci Manikin Co. in the 1950s, died in New York of pancreatic cancer. She was 87.
The company, which Pucci began with her late husband Nicholas in the basement of their home in Mount Vernon, N.Y., was originally a mannequin repair company. The Puccis’ son, Ralph, took over the business in the 1980s and transformed it into a designer and manufacturer of high-end mannequins, many sculpted in the likenesses of prominent fashion models and designed by fashion designers and illustrators.
Today, the Chelsea showroom of is an atelier for international decorators, furniture designers, photographers and illustrators, though the company continues to design and manufacture mannequins for high-end fashion retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.
Lee Pucci was born in Gallipolis, Ohio, but raised in the New York borough of The Bronx. Before starting the business with her husband, she was a hairstylist for mannequins, an experience that gave her the idea to form her company. She was still active in it until becoming ill last January.
“When it came to business, she was incredibly tenacious and feisty, yet very elegant and extremely fashionable, and up until a year ago, she still came to work at 8:15 and left at 6,” Ralph Pucci told Women’s Wear Daily. “Behind the scenes, she had her fingers in everything. Business and Pucci were in her blood.”
Her husband, Nicholas, died in 1988. A funeral Mass is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, October 6, at Epiphany Roman Catholic Church, 22nd Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan.