Joseph Cicio’s Circle of FriendsReflecting on a life of beauty, from the people to the houses to the gifts.

[Collection]Joseph Cicio is the first to admit that the line between his personal and professional lives has always been blurry. Passionate about department stores and his work as creative leader of several nameplates, the now-retired Cicio rubbed well-dressed elbows with New York society. “Friends Bearing Gifts,” Cicio’s new book, chronicles his relationships with bold-faced names such as Joan Rivers, Lady Nancy Keith, Lauren Bacall and Bill Blass, among others, and the treasures they bestowed on him. “I realized almost toward the end of the book that every relationship I wrote about is about my career,” Cicio said. “I’m a very big believer in relationships. They’re important today more than ever. It’s such a divisive world we live in.” Cicio, who came from humble beginnings, still seems surprised by his success and the rarified circles in which he traveled. “I’m just an Italian kid from a dysfunctional family in Brooklyn,” he said. “I’ve been very lucky.” An aesthete with impeccable taste, Cicio hated plastic flowers and other visual affronts to his sensibility. He enjoyed decorating his homes, which included Hidden Valley Castle in Cornwall, Conn., and a place in Litchfield County that’s been his life-long project. Cicio had the altruistic idea of becoming a missionary

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