Rome — Rosita Missoni, the matriarch of one of Italy’s leading fashion houses, who made colorful zigzag patterned knitwear high fashion and helped launch Italian ready-to-wear, has died. She was 93 years old.
Mr. Missoni passed away peacefully on Wednesday, the company and the Missoni family announced in a joint statement.
Local officials offered condolences Thursday and recalled Missoni’s ties to the small northern city of Gallarate, where the Missoni brand was born in an artisan shop in 1953.
Born Rosita Gelmini, Missoni grew up in a family that owned a textile factory that produced shawls. When she met and married Ottavio Missoni, they founded their eponymous fashion house in Gallarate. Later, the couple’s three children and their descendants were involved in expanding the brand, turning it into a fashion dynasty.
Missoni first broke out in 1958, when the Rinascente department store ordered 500 shirtdresses with colorful vertical stripes. This dress was the first to bear the Missoni label.
Missoni presented its first collection in Milan in 1966, and the brand helped transform the city into a fashion mecca.
Their signature fashions, with their trademark graphic zigzags, have long had a reputation for being easy to wear and surviving season after season of changing trends. The family were often the brand’s best models and wore Missoni’s graphic pieces in their daily lives.
The founders handed over the business to their children in 1997, but Rosita remained involved in Missoni’s home collection.
In 2013, as we celebrated our 60th anniversary, our family was struck by a double tragedy. Vittorio Missoni, Missoni’s eldest son and the company’s CEO, died when the plane carrying him and five others disappeared off the coast of Venezuela. It took six months to discover the plane’s wreckage off the coast of the South American country, during which time patriarch Ottavio Missoni died at the age of 92.
In 2018, the family sold a 41.2% stake to Italian investment fund FSI, but maintained majority control of the company.
In 2021, the youngest daughter Angela Missoni stepped down as creative director after 24 years.
No information regarding funeral arrangements has been announced at this time.
