Rosita Missoni, co-founder of the eponymous Italian knitwear brand Missoni, has died at the age of 93.
The news was confirmed by the president of Italy’s Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana, who praised the brand’s iconic “multi-colored textures.”
He described her death as “a great loss for Italy, Lombardy and the province of Varese where she was born and lived.”
In 1953, Rosita and her husband Ottavia founded the luxury brand – which became famous for its zigzag motif – in the northern Italian region.
Rosita, whose parents were scarf makers, was born in 1931 in the town of Golasecca in Lombardy.
While on a study trip to London to learn English, she met Ottavi – known as Tai – while he was competing in the 400m hurdles at the 1948 Olympics.
At the time, Tai was producing his own knit tracksuits, including a zip-up bottom to be worn over trainers.
“When I got married, four sewing machines arrived with my husband,” Rosita told the AFP news agency in an interview in 2016.
The couple, who married in 1953, initially opened a machine knitting workshop in Gallarate, northwest of Milan.
Their big breakthrough came in 1958 when a Milanese department store ordered hundreds of Missoni striped dresses.
Missoni’s first fashion show was held in 1966, followed by a presentation at the Pitti Palace in Florence the following year.
Controversy over the transparent quality of the clothes, after models were asked to remove their white bras because they could be seen under the blouses, brought the brand worldwide fame.
Tai died in 2013 at the age of 92.
The couple’s daughter, Angela, took over the fashion house in the late 1990s, although Rosita continued to work on the brand’s home line, Missoni Home.
