Ottavio Missoni (11 February 1921 – 9 May 2013) was the
founder of the
Italian
fashion label
Missoni
and a retired Italian Olympic
hurdler
who competed in the
1948 Summer Olympics. Along with his wife Rosita, he was part of the
group of designers who launched Italian
ready-to-wear in the 1950s, thereby ensuring the global success of
Italian fashion.[1]
Biography
Ottavio Missoni was born in
Ragusa, on the
Dalmatian coast. His mother, Teresa de Vidovich, was Countess of
Capocesto and
Rogoznica, and his father, Vittorio Missoni, was a
Friulian
sea captain who had moved to Dalmatia whilst it was under Austrian rule.[2][3]
He was educated in
Zara,
Trieste,
and Milan.[4]
Sporting
achievements
Aged 16, Missoni joined the Italian National Track Team in 1937. He
won the individual
national championship four times.[5][6]
He also competed with the Italian team in the
1948 Summer Olympics.[6]
War service
Ottavio Missoni served as an
infantryman during
World War II. In 1942, he fought in the
Battle of El Alamein, where he was captured by the
Desert Rats and served out the remainder of the War in an English
prisoner-of-war camp.[2]
Marriage
Whilst in London for the Olympics, Missoni met the 16 year old Rosita
Jelmini, an English student from
Golasecca, Italy.[8]
They married five years later on the 18th April, 1953, and settled in
Gallarate. Their first son,
Vittorio, was born on April 25, 1954. Luca, their second son, was
born on July 4, 1956. Angela, their only daughter, would follow in 1958.
Fashion
After the war, Ottavio and his team-mate
Giorgio Oberweger launched an
activewear business in Trieste making wool
tracksuits, which they called Venjulia suits.[6]
The tracksuits used details such as English ribbing and drop-stitching,
and featured
zippered
legs, a detail which Missoni has been credited with inventing.[9]
The success of the Venjulia suits, which took into account the need of
athletes for functional, warm garments enabling freedom of movement, led
to their being worn by the Italian Olympics team in 1948.[10]
In 1953, following his marriage to Rosita, the Missonis set up a
knitwear workshop in a basement in
Gallarate.
The first steps
Ottavio and Rosita worked for the Biki boutique in
Milan and
made special collections for the Rinascente store of Milan. In
1960 their
dresses started to appear in fashion magazines. Two years later, they
reinterpreted the Rachel machine, used historically until that moment
only for making shawls. They redirected it to different ends, creating
very new, very coloured, super-light dresses.
Anna Piaggi, then Fashion Editor of Arianna magazine of Mondadori
publishing, with her sure talent-scout nose, was the first journalist to
take a serious interest in Ottavio and Rosita’s work. She would follow
them, season after season, voicing their collections with original
releases.
In 1966
Missoni’s first fashion show was presented to to the press at the Teatro
Gerolamo of Milan. It was a great success. One year later, in April,
they were present for the first time at the Palazzo
Pitti in
Florence. Rosita, at the last minute, realised that the models did not
have underwear of the right colour under their blouses and she sent them
out on the stage with nothing under the knits, which, under the
reflector lights, became completely transparent. But not everybody
understands and at the next Pitti presentation, while Yves Saint Laurent
was launching the nude look in Paris, Ottavio and Rosita were not
invited. They instead took the opportunity to present their summer
collection at the Solari Swimming Pool, which was defined as a
“memorable and singular acquatic fashion show” with blow up armchairs
and floating transparent furniture. In this year they brought their
collection for sale in Paris, obtaining an evergrowing success.
In April
1969 Woman’s Wear Daily magazine, which was considered the bible on
fashion, dedicates its opening page to
Missoni, writing: “Missoni is in the lead with one of the most
sinful dresses among those inspired by Art Déco”. In the same year, with
architect Enrico Buzzi, Ottavio and Rosita built their new factory in
Sumirago, on a hill, between woods and plains.
An
overwhelming success
In 1970, the president of Bloomingdale, Marvin Traub, decided to open
a Missoni
boutique inside the prestigious department store. It was the first in
the United States. In April Ottavio and Rosita again broke all bounds
and presented in Florence a collection of great success, setting the way
for a new graphic interpretation in the dress of both woman and man.
Affirming this new style the Americans would baptise it ‘put together’:
Ottavio and Rosita Missoni became the Missonis.
In 1971
Ottavio presented in Cortina a collection with the famous ‘patchworks’,
interpreting them in a new way and the newspapers begin to compare
Ottavio’s chromatic compositions to contemporary works of art. In
November Bernardine Morris wrote on the New York Times: “It is exactly
what Chanel would do, if she were still alive, young and working in
Italy”.
In 1972
the family moved to their new house in Sumirago, in the woods next to
the factory.
In September 1973 Ottavio, together with his wife, received the
‘Neiman Marcus Fashion Award’, the prestigious international fashion
prize, equivalent to an Oscar, which had been given since 1938 to such
important names as Schiaparelli, Chanel, Dior, Pucci and even to George
Braque for his collection of jewels. Next year, in
1974, the
Missonis left Florence and the Pitti stage. They decided to present all
their collections in Milan, their natural setting.
In 1975
Renato Cardazzo arranged a personal exhibition for Ottavio at the
Gallery Il Naviglio in Venice, showing his fabrics as paintings.
Ferruccio Landi wrote an article whose title was: “Missoni, a Work of
Art, Pullover Size”. In 1976 Ottavio was proclaimed, together with
Gianni Agnelli, Charles of England and Robert Redford, one of the ten
most elegant men in the world. In the same year, he opened his first
boutique in Milan.
In 1979
the city of Milan honoured Ottavio with the golden medal for good civic
service to the town. Later on, Ottavio would receive many other awards.
In 1983 Ottavio, together with Rosita, made his debut at La Scala
Theatre in Milan as costume designer, creating more than one hundred
costumes for Donizetti’s opera ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’, starring Luciano
Pavarotti.
In May 1986 the President of Italy confered on Ottavio the honour of
‘Commendatore al Merito’ of the Italian Republic, an Italian decoration
given to important figures in industry. In 1991 Ottavio’s tapestries
werw shown, for the first time, in Japan, at the Yurakucho Asahi Gallery
of Tokyo.
On 11th February 2001 Ottavio celebrated his 80th birthday with his
family and the workers of his factory.
In 2002,
on occasion of the first fashion show in China, Ottavio Missoni received
an honorary degree at the Shanghai University.
Later life and
death
On the 4th January 2013, Missoni's eldest son Vittorio, his wife
Maurizia, two other passengers and two crew disappeared in an airplane
near the
Los Roques islands near
Venezuela. No bodies have been recovered and they are presumed dead.
See
Transaereo BN-2A-27 Islander Crash.
On the 18th April 2013 Ottavio and Rosita marked the 60th anniversary
of their marriage.
On the 1st May 2013 Ottavio was taken to hospital, but at his
request, he went home to be with his family in Sulmirago, where during
the night of the 8th and 9th May, he died "serenely".[1]
References
External links