Rosita Missoni, 93, Co-Founder of Famed Eponymous Fashion House, Dies [Video]

Rosita Missoni, co-founder of the Italian fashion house Missoni, has died. She was 93.

Attilio Fontana, president of the northern Italian region of Lombardy confirmed her death per the AFP, writing in a statement: “The passing of Rosita Missoni, a Lombard stylist and entrepreneur known throughout the world, saddens us. A great loss for Italy, Lombardy and for the province of Varese where she was born and lived.”

Missoni co-founded the fashion house — famous for bright, geometric knitted designs — alongside her husband Ottavio. The brand’s signature colorful zigzag designs were praised by Fontana as well as New York Times fashion journalist Bernadine Morris, who said in 1977 that they had “elevated knitting to an art form.”

The daughter of shawl manufacturers from northern Italy, Rosita was born in 1931 in the Lombard town of Golasecca. She met Ottavio, known as Tai, in 1948, when he was competing in the London Olympics.