Rosita Missoni, matriarch of the fashion label that bears her family name, best known for its colorful knitwear, passed away peacefully last week in her home in northern Italy. She was 93.
Mrs. Missoni and her husband Ottavio (“Tai”), who died in 2013, began their label in a modest machine knit workshop in Gallarate in 1953, the same year they married, and went on to become globally influential in the world of ready-to-wear fashion. In Missoni’s 70-plus years in the spotlight, the couple's designs were seen on everyone from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to Drake.
Despite the industry clout, many tributes suggest Mrs. Missoni never took fashion overly seriously. Often seen sporting a ducktail braid well into old age, she was known for playfulness — “Missoni” is synonymous with signature squiggly, zigzag motifs in joyful colors — and once famously declared, “Fashion is not something compulsory. I like it when people feel free.” (The Missoni brand itself, in fact, was originally called “Jolly” before it took on the family name.)
Here’s a look back at four reasons why Rosita Missoni is remembered as a renegade spirit.
1: She caused a runway scandal in buttoned-up Florence
In 1967, the Missoni presentation at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence — the label’s second-ever runway show — caused a huge scandal after Mrs. Missoni sent models down the runway braless in see-through tops. Backstage just before the show, Mrs. Missoni recounted many times over, she noticed their bras showing through the thin knit fabric and asked them to remove the undergarments. What she hadn’t anticipated was how the stage lights would affect the garments, leaving them totally transparent and causing a sensation. Although the Missonis were shut out of buttoned-up Florence the next season, they quickly caught the attention of the international press (and their peers; according to Vogue, Yves Saint Laurent released a “nude look” the following winter).
2: She playfully mixed patterns and wasn’t afraid of clashing colors
According to Women’s Wear Daily, the Missonis were the first luxury designers to sell coordinating separates in mixed patterns. The press dubbed the look “put together” or patchwork for its overlapping layers, vivid and occasionally clashing colors, patterns, and stitching that helped define 1970s and 1980s ready-to-wear fashion. The brand’s anti-establishment aesthetic, ironically, ended up being embraced by many major institutions: in 1972, the New York Times wrote, “The Missonis make the best knitwear in the world and, according to some, the most beautiful fashion in the world.” Later, in 1978, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City hosted a retrospective to mark the brand’s first 25 years; it was the first time the museum had hosted a fashion exhibit in its prestigious galleries, according to the Archivio Missoni.
3: She was an early adopter of glammed-up “athleisure”
One of the first fashion houses to draw inspiration from sports, Missoni introduced a line of tracksuits with side zippers so, as Rosita once recalled, “they could be put on with sneakers.” The coordinating jackets were made of ribbed knits.
4: Even her coffin was a colorful affair
Mrs. Missoni’s funeral ceremony was held at Milan’s Sant’Ambrogio church on Tuesday, January 10. An Instagram post shared by Mrs. Missoni’s granddaughter Margherita Maccapani Missoni Amos showed photos of friends and family using boldly colored markers to embellish the late Mrs. Missoni’s coffin with flowers, mushrooms, hearts and zany imagery. Women’s Wear Daily said it was “as unique as the designer herself and reflected her character and passions.”
