Missoni's colors of love

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It seems that Missoni see and understands colors in different way than the rest of us. Without love that wouldn't be possible.

Story of Missoni can be told in two ways: as a story of design or as a tale of a man and woman in love. To be honest, I don't know which way would be better because the story is fascinating no matter what the focus is. Missoni, a word used here in a meaning of "House of Missoni", not denoting a single person, created brand before that words was so important. Missoni connected the old Italian craft and very new luxury clientele. And Missoni's passion remains the same after more than half century.

Although family history goes back to the early years of 20th century, started with co-operation of Torrani and Jelmini families and their textile manufacture Vestor, the real story began when Rosita Jelmini married Ottavio Missoni in 1953. Vestor was successful, no doubt about that, but the passion was truly born at the Rosita and Ottavio's wedding. Ms. Rosita brought her knowledge about yarn used in the old days by her predecessors, and Missoni fabric used for creating sport suits. That combination gave a new meaning to the words knitwear and patchwork.

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Missonis are masters of colors. It seems that all family member see and understand colors in different way than the rest of us. Other designers' work can be good or not good, new or already seen, in color or black and white, but every detail that comes from Missoni's imagination is full of stunning color combination. I believe that "color fireworks" are the right words that describe that thinking. No matter are we looking at stripes or zig-zags, there are as many colors as there can be, but always in new and unexpected relationship with the other one. Sometimes it may seem that there was an error in choosing the color combination, but the second look clearly shows that's not the case.

After colors, you'll see stripes. As they would say at Missoni: "We had one very simple knitting machine and that was all it could produce". And it turned out to be very fortunate detail because Missoni's stripes make shape with deep inner meaning and it can be seen as a work of fine art. (As a designer I'm in love with stripes and lines, too, so maybe I'm little biased here, but it is hard to find better stripes than those from Missoni.)

How they do it? Frankly, I believe that even Ms. Rosita and Mr. Ottavio don't know that. It is something that is given to you at birth. The fascinating thing here is that both of them work (think?) the same way. And now I came to the second reason of Missoni's success that lasts for decades. missoni

Ms. Rosita and Mr. Ottavio stayed together in all those years, in good times and bad times. And there is still an aura of love around them, clearly seen in every look and touch. Without that love, I am certain, all the magic of colors, stripes and zig-zags couldn't be possible. The love is the reason why two young people with "a simple knitting machine" now are celebrated as the global fashion icons.

December 4, 2007

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