Ottavio Missoni disappeared this morning, one of the kings of Made in Italy. The designer died at the age of 92 at his home in Sumirago, in the Varesotto area, a few months after the tragic death of his son Vittorio and 60 years after the founding of the fashion brand, known throughout the world, which bears his name.
His was a full life, without rhetoric. Missoni was born in 1921 in the then kingdom of Yugoslavia, in Ragusa, and then moved with his family to Zara. His first passion is athletics. He wins eight national titles and one world student title. Then the war arrives and Missoni enlists in the army: he participates in the battle of El Alamein and is taken prisoner in Egypt, where he will remain for four years, before being able to return to Italy when the conflict is over, in '46.
In 1948 he took part in the London Olympics, where he finished sixth in the 400m hurdles. In London he finished his career as a blue athlete and the rest of his life began: during the days of the Olympics he met Rosita Jelmini, daughter of a fabric manufacturer from Varesotto, and five years later, in 1953, he married her.
Together, the two open a laboratory in Gallarate. It is there that the first models of the Missoni brand were born, which achieved fame in the 60s. In 69 the factory was moved to Sumirago. From there on it will be a continuous ascent. The peculiarity of Missoni dresses is that they are woven with a sewing machine, the Rachel, born for the manufacture of shawls: in this way the clothes are very light and colorful.
With Ottavio Missoni one of the noble fathers of Made in Italy is leaving, a strong and reserved man who, "raised - in his words - in the cult of self-sufficiency", managed to transform, after having re-emerged from the quicksand of the world conflict, a small family workshop in a brand known all over the world.
