Roberto Cavalli, early 1970s.
Navy suede peplum jacket with a printed suede peacock figure across the back.
A woman in a plumed peacock headdress stands at the center of the back. From her hands, peacock feathers sweep outward in great arcs across the shoulders, turquoise, violet, blush and olive, and trail down past the waist to a single gilded eye at the hem. Printed onto suede by the method Cavalli patented, then cut and set into the jacket as one composition.
The Piece
Midnight navy suede, cut close through the body and released into a peplum by inverted pleats at the back waist. Princess seams traced in contrast topstitching. Gathered, puffed sleeve heads.
A shawl collar edged in a scalloped border of suede printed with baroque scrolling florals in black over antique gold. The same border runs down both front edges, around the entire hem, across the flap pockets and around the cuffs. A single snap closes the jacket at the waist. Every applied edge is finished in zigzag stitching.
The figure recalls the Art Deco fashion illustration that was being rediscovered in the early 1970s, rendered here not on paper but on hide.
The Provenance
From the wardrobe of Fran Ornstein, whose mother was president of Crissa, the label Cavalli designed for during his founding period. She acquired the jacket on release and kept it for more than fifty years.
Part of Cavalli's lost first chapter: the founding-period work his later fame obscured, rediscovered in a single wardrobe and documented in Roberto Cavalli: The Painted Years.
In Vogue
The Painted Years was featured in Vogue, September 2026, by senior archives editor Laird Borrelli-Persson, who described the collection as "poster-like art on animal skin."
Read the Vogue feature
The Designer
Cavalli's patented leather printing drew commissions from Hermès and Pierre Cardin. His 1971 Patchwork collection was shown in the Sala Bianca of the Palazzo Pitti in Florence in 1972. Couture audiences dismissed it at first. Then photographs of Brigitte Bardot in a Cavalli printed jacket in Saint-Tropez made his work a fixture of fashionable European wardrobes.
The animal prints and red carpets of 1990s Cavalli became so dominant that this first chapter largely disappeared from public memory. No other 1970s Roberto Cavalli clothing is currently offered on 1stDibs.
In Museum Collections
Early printed leather work by Cavalli is held by:
Condition
Good vintage condition, with signs of age honest to a piece that was worn and kept. The metallic gold in the printed borders shows wear consistent with age, most visibly at the hem and cuffs. There is tonal variation in the suede nap throughout. All are disclosed in photographs.
Care: suede specialist cleaning only.
Measurements
Bust [ ] / Waist [ ] / Shoulder [ ] / Sleeve [ ] / Length [ ]
Labeled size [ ], approximately modern US [ ]. Please compare with a garment you own.
