Top Milan designer Mila Schon died overnight at her vineyard near Alessandria, her family said. She was 89.
Schon, whose clients included Jackie Kennedy and the Agnelli and Rockefeller families, was known for her simple, modern clothes structured along classical lines but sometimes inspired by modern artists including Lucio Fontana.
''We have lost one of the pillars of Italian fashion,'' said Mario Boselli, head of the Italian Chamber of Fashion.
''We are losing too many, first Gianni Versace then Gianfranco Ferre' and now her''.
Boselli said Schon had ''done a great deal of good for Italian fashion around the world''.
Milan city council observed a minute's silence for Schon on Friday, calling her ''an ambassador for Milanese elegance''.
Schon was born Maria Carmen Nutrizio, in then-Italian Dalmatia - today part of Croatia - in 1919.
Her wealthy Italian aristocratic parents moved to Italy when Schon was a child.
Initially inspired by Balenciaga and Dior, whose clothes she bought, she opened a small atelier in 1958 and showed for the first time in Florence in 1965, making a mark in high-class pret-a-porter.
By 1965 her stark and severely tailored outfits were drawing rising acclaim and she opened her first boutigue in Milan's fashion street, Via Montenapoleone.
Her first pret-a-porter men's and women's lines appeared in 1971, followed by accessories and perfumes.
She designed the distinctive uniforms of Alitalia air hostesses and went on to work for Iran Air.
By the 1980s she had shops in many Italian cities as well as Los Angeles and Japan - where she also produced lingerie, watches and lighters.
Her Italian clients included the famous singers Mina and Milva.
She received the Italian fashion industry's Golden Lion for career achievement in 1985.
In 1993 her group was taken over by the Japanese conglomerate Itochu but her griffe remained synonymous with high-class Italian style.
In 1999 Itochu sold the Italian part of the Mila Schon group to the Mariella Burani group - although Schon still personally supervised the designs of the house she founded.
The Roma fashion fest, Alta Roma, paid homage to the 50 years of the Schon house in July with a documentary and a retrospective of her most famous creations.
