The fashion world is saying goodbye to a legendary name.
Rosita Missoni, matriarch of the luxury Italian fashion house Missoni, has died aged 93.
The Missoni family and Group confirmed the fashion designer’s death in a social media post on Friday morning, January 3.
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“Rosita’s creative vision and tireless dedication made the Missoni style a symbol of Made in Italy worldwide,” they wrote on Instagram.
“Her artistic legacy will continue to live on through her creations, symbols of beauty and joy, inspiring fashion and design enthusiasts.”
The post was inundated with condolences from people in the fashion industry.
Yolanda Hadid, mother to models Gigi and Bella Hadid, wrote, “rest in peace with the Angels beautiful Rosita,” adding a broken hearted emoji.
President of the Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana, told news agency AFP the Lombard stylist and entrepreneur’s death “saddens us”.
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“A great loss for Italy, Lombardy and for the province of Varese where she was born and lived,” she added.
Rosita was known for co-founding and building the iconic eponymous fashion label Missoni with her husband Ottavio in the ’50s.
Born Rosita Jelmini, Missoni grew up in a family that owned a textile factory that produced shawls.
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When she met and married Ottavio Missoni, they founded their eponymous fashion house in Gallarate that would turn into a fashion dynasty, with the couple’s three children and their offspring involved in expanding the brand.
The Missonis got their first break in 1958, when the Rinascente department store commissioned 500 colorful vertically striped shirt dresses – the first to carry the Missoni label.
The Missonis first showed their collection in Milan in 1966 and the brand helped turn the city into a fashion mecca.
Their signature fashions, with the trademark graphic zigzags, long had a reputation for wearability and for surviving many seasons of changing trends.
Family members were often the brand’s best models, wearing Missoni graphic creations in everyday life.
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The founders turned over the business to their children in 1997, though Rosita remained involved in the Missoni home collection.
In 2013, as the company celebrated its 60th anniversary, the family endured a double tragedy.
The eldest Missoni son and the company’s CEO, Vittorio Missoni, died when a plane carrying him and five others disappeared off Venezuela.
It took six months to locate the plane wreckage in the seas off the South American country, during which time patriarch Ottavio Missoni died, aged 92.
In 2018, the family sold a 41.2 per cent stake to the Italian investment fund FSI, but maintained majority control of the house.
In 2021, the youngest daughter, Angela Missoni, stepped down as creative director after 24 years.
There was no immediate word on funeral arrangements.
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