Rosita Missoni, co-founder of the Italian knitwear brand, dies

Rosita Missoni, co-founder of the Italian knitwear brand of the same name Missoni, has died at the age of 93.

The news was confirmed by the president of the Italian region of Lombardy, Attilio Fontana, who praised the brand’s iconic “multicolored textures.”

He described his death as “a great loss for Italy, Lombardy and for the province of Varese where he was born and lived.”

Rosita founded the luxury brand, which became known for its zigzag motif, in the northern region of Italy with her husband Ottavio in 1953.

Rosita, whose parents were shawl makers, was born in 1931 in the town of Golasecca, Lombardy.

During a study trip to learn English in London, she met Ottavio, known as Tai, while competing in the 400-meter hurdles at the 1948 Olympics.

At the time, Tai was producing his own knitted tracksuits, including pants with a zipper so he could put them on over sneakers.

“When I got married, four sewing machines arrived with my husband,” Rosita told the AFP news agency in a 2016 interview.

The couple, who married in 1953, initially set up a machine knitwear workshop in Gallarate, northwest of Milan.

Her big break came in 1958, when a Milanese department store ordered hundreds of striped dresses under the Missoni label.

The first Missoni show occurred in 1966, followed by a presentation at the Pitti Palace in Florence the following year.

A controversy over the sheer quality of the clothing, after models were asked to remove white bras because they could be seen under their blouses, propelled the brand to global fame.

Tai died in 2013, aged 92.

The couple’s daughter, Angela, took over the fashion house in the late 1990s, although Rosita continued working on the brand’s main line, Missoni Home.