Rosita Missoni, the matriarch of the iconic Italian fashion house that made colorful zigzag-patterned knitwear high fashion and helped launch Italian ready-to-wear, died Thursday, a company official said. She was 93. Missoni SpA confirmed the death and planned a statement along with the family later, said Alberto Gualeni, an international spokesperson for the company in Milan.
Local officials offered condolences and recalled Missoni’s ties to the small northern city of Gallarate where the Missoni brand was born in an artisan’s shop in 1953. Born Rosita Jelmini, 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 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.
