Nasty with a Pucci outfit: Which historical baddie had the nastiest Pucci?

Like many during the festive period, I too became preternaturally obsessed by Alabama Barker’s Christmas haul video. For those with full and happy lives, Barker is the 20-year-old scion of Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, and step-daughter to the eldest Kardashian sister, Kourtney Kardashian-Barker. She’s mostly known for her bit part on the family reality show as well as her own fledgling music career, which saw her face off with Bhad Bhabie for 2025’s stalest rap beef.

This Christmas, however, the young musician welcomed us into the Kardashian-Barker world via her present haul. Over the course of a nine-minute TikTok, Barker presented her Xmas gifts from the whole fam – including a Birkin from her father worth $25,000, a Balenciaga city bag from Kendall coming in at just under $3k, a denim Chanel bag from Kylie, Skims pyjamas from Kim, plus more Chrome Hearts and Cartier than anyone could wear in a lifetime. Online sleuths have estimated that the sum total of Barker’s Christmas gifts was upward of $200,000.

Along with discourse about the hefty price tag, Barker’s video also birthed a viral catchphrase, one that’s been fizzing inside my brain ever since it was uttered. Upon unboxing a pair of feathered Saint Laurent Nue heels, Barker quips, “Nasty. With a Pucci outfit? Nasty”, before quickly moving on to a vintage Chanel bikini. Despite its brevity, the internet swiftly latched onto the phrase, and, soon, opening TikTok meant you were met with a chorus of Alabama doppelgängers.

Every single type of shoe was eligible for Puccification, with people holding up jelly clogs and bargain bin boots proclaiming that, they too, would “look nasty with a Pucci outfit”. There was something about the line’s forced AAVE and Barker’s Atlanta drawl (she is from Los Angeles) that sent TikTok into a tailspin, and now I cannot ever imagine selecting a shoe to wear without first pronouncing that it would, in fact, look nasty with a Pucci outfit.

As well as the chaos the catchphrase unleashed, many also reacted with consternation. ‘What is Poochie?’ wrote some. “I’m too poor to know what a pucci outfit is”, said others. From there, green screen explainers on Pucci sprouted on the app, with disembodied TikTokers running through the history of the brand, from its founding by Italian aristocrat Emilio Pucci in 1947, to last summer’s fleeting ‘Pucci Summer’ trend (which apparently involved Hailey Bieber wearing a twinset on a yacht or something). Simply put, Barker just wanted to wear the heels with a loud, colourful outfit, but instead reached for the shorthand word instead – Pucci – thus, “nasty with a Pucci outfit” was born.

The whole thing got me thinking about what I consider to be the nastiest era of Pucci ever – that is, the 2000s. During that era, nasty Pucci was everywhere. On a 20-year-old Lindsay Lohan, making a beeline from New York nightclub Bungalow 8, and on Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, complete with TV screen-sized sunglasses. Elsewhere, a navel-baring vintage number was favoured by American Pie actress Mena Suvari at the 2000 MTV Movie Awards, while Jennifer Lopez downright refused to leave the house without a fuckass Pucci print plastered all over her body. Back then, Nasty Pucci was the culture. Paired over black capris and a Chloe Paddington slung in the crook of an arm, Pucci was an important facet of the It-Girl arsenal.

At the time, a succession of hyped creative directors helped to breath life into the bold, geometric prints previously favoured in the 60s and 70s. While Christian Lacroix was at the helm from 2002 to 2005, Matthew Williamson took over from 2005 to 2008, followed by Peter Dundas until 2011. It was during the 2000s and early 2010s that Pucci, in my opinion, experienced its nastiest era of all time. Who else had Carmen Electra and Natalie Portman going toe-to-toe? Who else dressed Beyoncé for her entire world tour? Who else had Mariah Carey popping out in Paris wearing a psychedelic beach slip and six-inch pumps? Pucci, that’s who.

To see all the nastiest Pucci outfits of that era, scroll through the gallery at the top of the page.