Missoni
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Missoni is a Milan-based fashion house in Italy founded by Rosita and Ottavio (better known as Tai) Missoni, famous for unique ready-to-wear knits.
[edit] History
Missoni started out as a small family-owned store, run by Rosita and Ottavio Missoni. The couple first met at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. Before Ottavio met his wife, he produced tracksuits which were to be worn by the Italian national team. They married five years later and moved to Milan. There, they started a workshop designing tracksuits but soon moved on to knitwear. They premiered their collections when they met Emmanuelle Kahn in 1964. Their designs have become famous thanks to their colorful patterns and stripes on wide-ranging fabrics.
The second time when they made the headlines was 1967. When their designs were being showcased at Palazzo Pitti, Rosita told the models to remove their brassieres to prevent the lines of her black silk jersey dresses from becoming ruined, not realizing the tops of the dresses would become transparent under the powerful lights leaving the fashion world shocked.
Later on, their three children joined the family business. Their lines expanded when Ottavio Missoni began to design carpets and tapestries, but they still retain their trademark, which is colourful patterns, stripes, and liberal use of many different fabrics. Their designs are made of twenty different fabrics such as wool, cotton, linen, rayon and silk and forty colors.
In November 2005, Missoni and RezidorSAS Hospitality signed an agreement to open a lifestyle hotel chain of the same name: Hotel Missoni. In March 2006, the first Missoni locations were announced for Kuwait City, Edinburgh, and Dubai. Hotel Missoni Kuwait will be the group's first property in the world, opening in a luxury mixed-use development on the seafront in the third quarter of 2007. The Edinburgh property will open in late 2008, while the Dubai hotel will debut at the end of 2008.
