Missoni

Missoni exemplifies success in a specific fashion area, knitwear for men and women. In the knitwear business since 1953, the business began by Tai Ottavio and Rosita Missoni. Primarily creators of exceptional knitwear, Missoni has been noted as much as an art as much as a business. "Our philosophy since we went into business has been that a piece of clothing should be like a work of art. It should not be bought for a special occasion or because it's in fashion, but because a woman likes it…and feels she could wear it forever."

Missoni brought a vivid sense of imagination to knits, rescuing them from the heirlooms and old-fashioned aspects of handknits and from the conventional sameness of many machine-knitted products. Like many Italian products of the postwar period, the value of the product was not in its handwork, but in the unquestionable supremacy of design attained through machine. Today computers and sophisticated machines make the Missoni knits, yet they remain exceptional in their colors and texture and have become a staple in both menswear and womenswear.

Little the Missonis have produced ever depended upon fashion. Instead, their knits seem perennial: a Missoni design might be worn with a favored color one season and still be compatible with other colors in other seasons. The Missonis elevated knitted clothes to a form of art and as such they were recognized as visible status symbols in the 1970s and 1980s. By the middle 1990s the Missoni name graced a sexier style of apparel, brought about by Angela Missoni, who had begun designing her own signature collection in 1992. Celebrities flocked to buy the sensual knitwear, the new enthusiasts including Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lopez, Ashley Judd, and Julia Roberts.