Iconic fashion designer Roberto Cavalli died in Italy (6 photos)

The couturier was called the king of outrageousness and brawler. He invented and patented a new technique for applying images to the skin, and also actively used patchwork, proving that clothes made from patches can be fashionable and sophisticated.





Roberto Cavalli was born in Florence into a creative family. His grandfather Giuseppe Rossi was an impressionist artist, and his mother Marcella Rossi worked as a dressmaker and created beautiful clothes herself. While still a student at the Italian Academy of Arts, Roberto founded a company producing jeans, T-shirts and other unpretentious clothing.

He experimented a lot with leather, and in the 1970s he patented an innovative process for printing on this material. The images were multi-colored, which was unprecedentedly progressive for that time. To present his products, Cavalli opened his first store in Saint-Tropez. This small shop called Limbo quickly became popular, bringing fame to the young fashion designer. A year later, the designer was invited to demonstrate his leather products at the Sala Bianca exhibition center in Florence. Recognized fashion houses (Missoni, Krizia, Fendi and Basile) also exhibited there, and the young fashion designer could only dream of such success.

Cavalli has become a well-known headliner of animal prints. Clothes and accessories with leopard and zebra patterns are loved by many celebrities around the world. The images created by Cavalli were always bright and distinctly sexy.



During his heyday as a designer, there was no fashion for baggy clothes and body positivity, so his models were always slender, graceful, and the designer’s outfits only emphasized female beauty.





The fashion designer claimed that his talent was exaggerated, he was only copying God.

“God is the best designer in the world. I copy him"

The fashion designer's personal life was as stormy and colorful as his clothes.



He has three marriages with recognized world beauties - Silvanella Giannini, Vice-Miss Universe Eva Dühringer and Playboy model Sandra Nilsson. Cavalli has six children, and the last child was born a year before the couturier’s death.



Roberto Cavalli and Sandra Nilsson

The mother of Cavalli's youngest child, Sandra Nilsson, is only 37 years old. She became the fashion designer's last muse and his last beloved woman, in whose arms he died yesterday, April 12.



The fashion designer was 83 years old. He once said, “Surround yourself with love, because love will be the beacon of your life.” Cavalli lived brightly and did not regret anything.