FILE PHOTO: Rosita Missoni poses before the Missoni Spring Summer 2018 show during Milan Fashion Week in Milan, Italy, September 23, 2017.
Stefano Relandini | Reuters
Italian designer Rosita Missoni, co-founder of the eponymous fashion house known for its bright graphic style, died Thursday at the age of 93, a company official said.
She founded the company with her husband Ottavio Missoni in 1953, developing a brand that became popular for its colorful knitwear with geometric patterns and stripes, including the signature zigzag pattern known as fiammato.
Rosita was born into a family of textile craftsmen near Varese, a small town in northern Italy, and studied modern languages.
In 1948, on a trip to London to improve her English, she met Ottavio, who was competing on the Italian 400m hurdles team at the London Olympics.
The Missoni brand has received international recognition and awards for its unique patterns and avant-garde use of textiles, as well as its approach to fashion that is often compared to modern art.
The so-called “War of the Bra” in 1967 also helped.
Missoni was invited to hold a fashion show at the Pitti Palace in Florence, but before the models walked down the catwalk, Rosita noticed that their bras were visible through their tops, ruining the intended color and pattern effects.
She caused a sensation when she asked models to take off their bras, only to have their garments become completely see-through under the catwalk lights.
They were not invited back for a second year, but Missoni soon appeared on the covers of major fashion magazines including Vogue, Elle and Marie Claire.
Their graphic, layered designs caught the attention of a fashion world that was moving away from haute couture and became the standard-bearers for the so-called “patchwork” style.
When the company moved its headquarters to Sumirago, an Italian town north of Milan, the Missonis set up home next door, with most of their windows overlooking Rosita’s beloved Monte Rosa mountains.
Rosita served as creative director of the women’s collections until the late 1990s, when she handed over this task to her daughter Angela.
In 2013, the couple suffered tragedy when their eldest son and company marketing director, Vittorio Missoni, died in a plane crash off the coast of Venezuela.
Ottavio died in May 2013 at the age of 92, four months after their son’s plane went missing but the wreckage has yet to be found.
The brand expanded into home collections and hotels. In 2018, Italian investment fund FSI invested 70 million euros in this family-owned company and obtained 41% of the shares, aiming to strengthen the brand’s influence overseas.
Missoni chose Rothschild as a financial adviser in 2023 to explore the possibility of selling the family business.
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