Rosita Missoni, the iconic Italian fashion designer who co-founded the eponymous knitwear brand, has passed away at the age of 93.
Admired for her colorful fashion house, which she created with her husband, Ottavio, in 1953, Missoni was considered one of the key designers who took the Italian ready-to-wear industry to the global market in the 1950s and 60s.
In the following decades, Missoni became a household name, and the couple were often described as “color geniuses”; its use of kaleidoscopic prints and famous zigzag motif have become synonymous with the Italian lifestyle.
Born Rosita Jelmini in 1931, Missoni met her husband in London in the summer of 1948. He was competing in the 4 x 400m hurdles final at the Olympic Games, while she was learning English at a boarding school.
After marrying in 1953, the couple set up a small knitwear shop north of Milan, before settling in Sumirago, where they built their home and factory.
They shocked Italian fashion in 1967 when, during a fashion show at the Pitti Palace in Florence, Missoni showed braless models wearing transparent blouses down the catwalk.
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However, after being championed by the likes of then-American Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, the couple overcame the controversy and began focusing on their knitwear, which became central to the brand’s success.
The couple’s three children, Vittorio, Luca and Angela, and grandchildren became part of the family business, often starring in advertisements.
In 1996, Angela and Luca took over the creative side, while Vittorio became the marketing director and, later, the executive director.
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Missoni continued to work in the Missoni Home division, including after the sale of a minority stake in the brand to Fondo Strategico Italiano in 2018.
At the beginning of 2013, Vittorio died in a plane crash, aged 58, and Ottavio died soon after, in May of the same year, aged 92.
Missoni leaves Luca and Angela and nine grandchildren.
