Missoni Dynasty

Angela Missoni was telling the colourful story behind Missoni Italian fashion house at the V&A Museum in London. Probably the most well known luxury knitwear company in the world it is still very much a family business, led by three generations of the Missoni family.

The talk took place just before an upcoming major exhibition at the V&A called The Glamour of Italian Fashion. It will be a comprehensive look at Italian Fashion from the end of the Second World War to the present day.

The story of Missoni starts in sportswear. Angela Missoni’s father Ottavio Missoni had a workshop making wool tracksuits. Her father was an athlete, who participated in London Olympics 1948, where he met his future wife Rosita Missoni. The team was wearing tracksuits made by Missoni.

The roots in sportswear mean that Missoni brand must always be more than anything else comfortable. One must feel at ease wearing the clothes. Rosita’s roots in embroidery brought the fashion in moving the brand away from original sportswear. Rosita started using knits like fabric. This formed the brand DNA and made it different from anything else still today at the market.

Angela calls her mother a ‘builder’. She has been the driving force behind the company. In fact Angela’s interview was not only about her. Rosita Missoni was in the audience commenting and making sure that her daughter remembered all important facts about the company right.

Not perhaps surprising, but during the history of Missoni they seem to be the first to come up with new ideas and constantly driving the innovation. The next generation of Missonis have already started at the company. The family is incredibly close and the brand is clearly a true representation of Missonis’ own lifestyle. In fact they even portrait themselves in ad campaigns.

The big question in the future is that do the family want to keep the company small or would they get investors in to expand the business. Judging from Angela Missoni’s views the latter seems more likely.