Missoni

Missoni

Type	Private
Industry	Fashion
Founded	Gallarate, Lombardy (1953)
Founder(s)	Ottavio and Rosita Missoni
Headquarters	Milan, Italy
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Angela Missoni, Luca Missoni, Vittorio Missoni
Products	Knitwear
Revenue	€60.1 million (2010)
Owner(s)	Missoni family
Website	www.missoni.com

Ottavio Missoni

Missoni is an Italian fashion house based in Varese. It is famous for its unique knitwear, made from a variety of fabrics in colourful patterns. The company was founded by Ottavio ("Tai") and Rosita Missoni in 1953.

Brands

Aside from the main Missoni line, the company has diversified into a variety of luxury goods. Missoni Sport was initially licensed out but production and marketing was brought in-house in January 2002 and has since been discontinued.^[1] M Missoni is a less expensive line introduced in 1998, manufactured and distributed by Marzotto (now Valentino Fashion Group S.p.A). It has achieved remarkable success in being able to reach a larger number of consumers and is now being sold at premier department and specialty stores across the world.^[1]

The Missoni Home collection has its roots in furnishing fabrics produced in 1981 in collaboration with Rosita's family firm.^[1] They launched their first perfume in 1982,^[1] although that product has nothing to do with the license now held by Estée Lauder.

In November 2005, Missoni and the Rezidor Hotel Group signed an agreement to create Hotel Missoni, a lifestyle hotel chain, with plans to have 30 hotels open or in development by 2012. As of March 2011, five properties have been confirmed.

• Hotel Missoni Edinburgh - Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom - opened June 8, 2009
• Hotel Missoni Kuwait - Kuwait City, Kuwait - opened March 1, 2011
• Hotel Missoni Jebel Sifah - Muscat, Oman - opening Q1 2012
• Hotel Missoni Ilha de Cajaíba - Bahia, Brazil - opening Q1 2012
• Hotel Missoni Belek - Belek, Turkey - opening Q1 2013

The first property, Hotel Missoni Edinburgh, opened on June 8, 2009 in a prime location on the city's Royal Mile. The second property, Hotel Missoni Kuwait, will open in a luxury mixed-use development on the seafront in early 2010. A property was previously announced for Dubai's Palm Jumeirah island, but has since been cancelled. The third announced property for the chain will be the 300-room Hotel Missoni Jebel Sifah, a beachfront resort located outside of Muscat, Oman; it is planned to open in the first quarter of 2012. A fourth property, Hotel Missoni Cape Town, was announced on June 9, 2009; the 157-room property was due to open in 2010 shortly after the FIFA World Cup, but has been placed on hold and temporarily scrapped. The chain's fifth property, the 150-room Hotel Missoni Ilha de Cajaíba, will debut in northeast Brazil in early 2012. A new 138-room golf and spa resort in Belek, Turkey, was announced in 2010; it is due to open in 2013.

History

Ottavio Missoni was born in 1921 in Dubrovnik (Ragusa in Italian).^[1] His father, Vittorio Missoni, was an Italian sea captain (and son of a Friulano magistrate transferred in the then Austrian- ruled Dalmatia) and his mother, Teresa de' Vidovich Countess di Capocesto e Ragosniza, was a dalmatian-Italian noblewoman.^[1] Before WWII he was an international athlete, but spent most of the war as a POW in Egypt.^[1] After the war he set up a workshop with his friend Giorgio Oberweger, making wool track-suits.^[1] His "Venjulia" tracksuits were adopted by the Italian team at the 1948 Olympics in London, and Tai himself qualified for the final of the 400m hurdle race.^[1] At Wembley he met Rosita Jelmini, daughter of a family of shawl makers in Golasecca in the province of Varese.^[1]

They married in April 1953, and set up a small knitwear workshop in Gallarate, not far from Rosita's home village.^[1] In 1958 they presented in Milan their first collection, called Milano-Simpathy, which was the first to bear the Missoni label.^[1] The business prospered, with the support of legendary editor Anna Piaggi, then at Arianna.^[1] On a trip to New York, Rosita met the French stylist Emmanuelle Khanh in 1965, which led to a collaboration and a radical new collection the following year.^[1] Their fame was assured in April 1967, when they were invited to show at the Pitti Palace in Florence.^[1] Rosita told the models to remove their bras, supposedly because they were the wrong colour and showed through the thin lamé blouses.^[1] The material became transparent under the lights and caused a sensation.^[1] The Missonis were not invited back the following year, but the business went from strength to strength, building a new factory in Sumirago in 1969.^[1] With their designs being championed in the US by Diana Vreeland, editor of Vogue magazine, they opened their first boutique there, inside Bloomingdales.^[1]

The early 1970s saw Missoni reach the peak of their influence in the fashion world. Tai Missoni then became more interested in other projects, everything from designing costumes for La Scala, to designing carpets and tapestries. Rosita has admitted that in the 1990s she lost interest in fashion, before handing over to her daughter Angela in 1998. Rosita now is responsible for overseeing the design of all home projects.^[2]

Ottavio Missoni was Sindaco (Mayor) of Libero Comune di Zara in Esilio (Free Commune of Zadar in Exile).^[3]

On September 13, 2011, Missoni made headlines briefly when Target Stores offered low-cost variants of Missoni products in their stores and on their website. Most items sold out within 24 hours, with lines up to 100 people long waiting for restocking, and Target's website crashed repeatedly. Many items appeared on eBay within hours, at two to three times markup^[4].

Style

Missoni knitwear is known for its multitude of patterns such as stripes, geometrics, and abstract florals, in a kaleidoscope of colours.^[5] They are also known for the liberal use of many different fabrics such as wool, cotton, linen, rayon and silk.

Family

Ottavio and Rosita Missoni

The three children of the founders play a large part in the business. Vittorio (born 1954) is the Marketing Director, Luca (born 1956) was responsible for the design of the menswear collection through the Spring/Summer 2008 collection, and Angela (born 1958) is Creative Director for womenswear and took over menswear beginning with the Fall/Winter 2008/2009 collection.^[6]

Luca's daughter, Jennifer Missoni, is an actress who has appeared in Off Broadway theatre productions, and in episodes of Damages and the Law & Order series.^[7] Angela's daughter, Margherita, designs accessories at Missoni and is also a model, signed to [Marilyn Agency]. She is the unofficial "muse" of the Missoni collection and the face of their two perfumes and was the face for Missoni for Target collection. Creative Director Angela Missoni brought her entire family and some friends to London for one of their latest campaigns, shot in London's Museum of Everything.^[8]

Notes and references

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s} "Missoni History". Missoni S.p.A.. http://www.missoni.com/ing.html. Retrieved 2008-04-07. 
2. ^ Menkes, Suzy (2003). "Missoni's family mosaic". International Herald Tribune (London). 2003-12-02. http://www.iht.com/articles/2003/12/02/missoni_ed3_.php. Retrieved 2008-04-07. ^{[dead link]}
3. ^ "Article from ',Corriere della Sera',, an Italian newspaper". Archiviostorico.corriere.it. 12 February 2004. http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2004/febbraio/12/Missoni_esule_Zara_applaudo_Europa_co_9_040212036.shtml. Retrieved 22 May 2011. 
4. ^ http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-09-13/features/chi-targets-website-crashes-after-missoni-launch-20110913_1_target-hits-target-collection-target-corp September 13, 2011.
5. ^ "Missoni: Evening Dress 1984.589.5a,b". Metropolitan Museum of Art. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/itfa/hod_1984.589.5a,b.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-07.  Evening dress from Winter 1978 collection
6. ^ "Missoni catwalk show at the V&A". Victoria and Albert Museum. http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/fashion/fashion_motion/missoni/index.html. Retrieved 2007-08-05.  Has lots of photos of Missoni knitwear
7. ^ Jennifer Missoni at the Internet Movie Database
8. ^ "Missoni in the Museum of Everything". Dazed Duary 2011. http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/9452/1/missoni-in-the-museum-of-everything. Retrieved 22 May 2011. 

External links

• www.missoni.com Official Website