Missoni Fashion Firm Founder Dies

Ottavio Missoni, who founded the Missoni (Milan, Italy) knitwear company with his wife, Rosita, in the 1950s, died on Thursday at the family’s home in Sumirago, Italy, according to a report in The New York Times. He was 92.

Missoni’s death, which comes four months after the disappearance of a small plane carrying his son Vittorio and three other passengers in Venezuela, was confirmed in a statement by the Missoni company. He had been treated for a respiratory problem last week, according to Italian news media.

According to The New York Times report, Mr. Missoni was an Italian track star when he met Rosita while competing in the London Olympics in 1948. After they married in Italy, they established a knitwear business in the Lombardy Region in the 1950s, developing intricate machinery that would enable them to create the famous colorful zigzag patterns that became the Missoni signature.

Since the late 1990s, when Ottavio and Rosita Missoni handed control of the company to their children, the company has expanded into a lifestyle brand with furniture, fragrance and hotels, as well a collaboration with Target in 2011 that broke many store records.

Photography: P Cruciatti, Shutterstock.com