Designer Roberto Cavalli dies at 83 in Florence

The Italian designer Roberto Cavalli died this Friday at the age of 83 in Florence. The news comes from the Italian agency ANSA, which states that the designer had been ill for a long time and that his condition had worsened in recent days.

Cavalli, who was born in Florence in 1940, became known in the fashion industry for his extravagant animal-print designs. “It’s not that I exactly like wearing animal patterns, it’s just that I love everything in nature. I began to notice that even the fish have a fantastic and colorful ‘dress’, the snake too and the tiger. I started to realize that God really is the best designer, so I started to imitate him,” he said in an interview with Vogue magazine in 2011.

The artistic vein already ran in the Cavalli family. She was inspired by his grandfather, the painter Giuseppe Rossi, who exhibited his works in the Uffizi Gallery, where Roberto Cavalli ended up joining the Academy of Arts in Florence. During his studies, the Italian put aside canvases and brushes and, little by little, approached the world of fashion. “My dream, perhaps because of my family, was to be a painter. on a certain moment I chose to turn to textiles and from textiles I went to fashion“He explained in several interviews when remembering his journey.

In the early 1970s, Cavalli created and patented a revolutionary leather stamping procedure. It was with this technique that, at only 30 years old, he presented his first collection, in Paris, at the Prêt-à-Porter Salon, and which earned him orders from other major design houses, including Hermès and Pierre Cardin. In 1972, he opened his first boutique and chose Saint-Tropez as his destination.

After his initial success, Cavalli went through a period of stagnation in the 1980s. “The rich aesthetic that Roberto coined did not coincide with the minimalist and deconstructive fashion presented by the new wave of Japanese and Belgian designers,” Vogue recalls in a brief biography. However, his career ended up entering a phase of greater attention in the ’90s, with his focus on combining printing techniques and jeans. A decade later, he launched the Cavalli Jeans brand, which was later renamed Cavalli.

During his career, he would also be invited to reinvent the look of the Playboy Bunnies, with a leopard version; and launch of Cavalli Vodka. Along the way he dressed several female artists, such as Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez and groups such as the Spice Girls. In 2009, on The Martha Stewart Show, he announced a turning point in the world of photography. “My dream is, in the near future, to create a large exhibition showing my (photographs) from Africa and other exotic places,” he revealed.

Cavalli also found himself at the center of a lengthy trial in Italy over a tax fraud case, which ended with his acquittal. His company also began to record losses, forcing him to sell most of his shares in 2015.

Despite its success, the brand has progressively faced financial difficulties linked to growing competition from houses controlled by the giants LVMH and Kering, and Cavalli left the artistic direction of his group in 2013. Two years later, the fund Milan-based Clessidra bought 90% of the capital, but could not contain the losses. Finally, Cavalli was acquired in November 2019 by Vision Investments, the investment fund of Dubai real estate magnate Hussain Sajwani.

The designer was married three times. In 1964 he married Silvanella Giannoni, with whom he had two children, and the union lasted ten years. He later married Eva Düringer, who became the creative director of his collection. They had three children and divorced in 2010. For the past 15 years he lived with Sandra Bergman Nilsonn, with whom he had a son, who is now two years old.

In a recent interview, Cavalli admitted to having “I miss creating something”. “When I look at the newspapers, where you see some of the current fashion, I feel inadequate. Incapable of everything I don’t do and would like to do. I would like to continue being present,” he revealed, according to Corriere Della Sera.

The news of the designer’s death is received with messages of tribute. “Dear Roberto, you can no longer be physically here with us, but I know that I will always feel your spirit with me,” wrote Fausto Puglisi, creative director of Roberto Cavalli since October 2020, in an Instagram post.

“A life lived with Love. It is with great sadness today that we say goodbye to our founder Roberto Cavalli. From his humble beginnings in Florence, Roberto managed to become a globally recognized name, loved and respected by all. Naturally talented and creative, Roberto believed that everyone could discover and nurture the artist within them. “Roberto Cavalli’s legacy will live on through his creativity, his love of nature, and his family, which he adored,” reads a post shared on the brand’s Instagram page.