Biography of Roberto Cavalli

The beautifully excessive passion for color

November 15, 1940
Roberto Cavalli was born in Florence on 15 November 1940. Famous Italian fashion designer, he founded a fashion house based in Florence that bears his name, now excellent brand known all over the world. It is famous for the original style, exemplified in the colorful patchwork of his own invention, full and always recognizable. The little Roberto was born and grew up immersed in art. His grandfather is Giuseppe Rossi, a prominent figure of the avant-garde artistic movement born between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and called "macchiaiolo" realist "and" poetic guidance as opposed to any kind of academicism and neoclassical rhetoric.
When was the nephew, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence has already exhibited some paintings of his grandfather Joseph, from which Robert must have taken in addition to the geniuses also and especially his passion for color. In 1944, when the future fashion designer has just four years old, his father George Horses is killed by the Wehrmacht (German armed forces) in the town of Cavriglia. Passed the war years, the little Roberto goes to school, proving right now his passion for colors and design.
He enrolled at the Academy of fine arts in Florence and begins to reflect on possible combinations between painting and fashion, painting and fabrics, colors and textures. The specialization they choose, however, is clear: the textile applications of painting. According to some accounts, the young Roberto Cavalli would have invented precisely in these years as a student some new coloring techniques. In the years ' 60, a period of great experimentation not only in music but also in fashion and art, it is said that the young designer would create on a ping-pong table a new technique of skin decoration.
In any case, it is during this period that Horses he made a series of floral prints that are applied to the mesh, involving, thanks to his talent, some of the most important Italian knitwear. In 1972 this work sees the light at the Palazzo Pitti, in Florence. He baffles audiences and critics by presenting a collection beautifully, as was defined, full of colors and prints inspired by the world of nature. However, the good things seen at Palazzo Pitti, Cavalli has already had the merit to show it to the French, in those years, perhaps more willing to accommodate similar stylistic provocations. In 1970 presents at the Salon du Prêt-à-Porter in Paris, the first collection that bears his name, with colors that will make him famous soon and it is no coincidence that on that occasion, still the premiere class Florentine, notice are Hermès and Pierre Cardin. It is the prelude to his inimitable and colorful patchwork, trademark of Roberto Cavalli. In the years ' 70 the Florentine artist not only passes to the sala Bianca of Palazzo Pitti, but mob scenes also Milan Collections.
Get the printed denim jeans, leather inlays, brocades and, always, the famous animal prints. Already in 1972, in Saint Tropez, Cavalli opened his first fashion boutiques. Eight years later, in 1980, the Florentine designer marries the beautiful Eva Maria Düringer, silver podium in the Miss Universe contest. His wife became his collaborator, although by the end of the 80 's fashion house you slow down a bit its production. In this period in fact Horses is dedicated to family, breeding racehorses, his great passion, and engages in a series of investments that just cover its scope of choice. Since the early 90 's, the couple returns to their seat, beginning to recover collections in the grind. The 1994 marks the beginning of the new course, with an amazing fashion show in Milan, in which the Florentine designer draws out of the hat yet another gimmick: an aged jeans with a blasting treatment. Is the beginning of a new, great rise on the international market.
For Roberto Cavalli it is a double victory, both on that on that sort of minimal style that during those years seems to be present everywhere. The jeans, in addition to treatment with sand is enhanced with sequin scales, mingling at times with a kind of second skin zebra-striped or spotted. The stretch is back in vogue, especially for women, to which it directs the attention of the artist, who "customs clearance", as it was written, Leopard and Zebra style even for everyday life. In addition, the skin during these years back all the rage, thanks to nails in goat invented by the designer of Florence and thank all colours that experiments on his beloved fabric renewed hallmark of his fashion house. In December 1994, the year of rebirth, comes to light a new boutiques in Saint Barth, in the French Caribbean. Same thing happens next to Venice and again in Saint Tropez. At the end of the Decade, the mark appears in 36 countries around the world, with a large and widespread distribution ever.
In 1998 comes the young line Just Cavalli, next to newborn brand RC Menswear. Accessories, sunglasses, perfume, watches and intimate, in addition to the costumes very loved by guys, spread on the market, helping to make of the Florentine House now a multinational of Haute Couture. The designer also during these years, he devoted himself to teenagers and invents the two Angels & Devils and Class, two collections of underwear, shoes, glasses, watches and perfumes. In 2002 Roberto Cavalli goes home. While fully respecting the historical place of Playful Florence Coffee, tea room popular with Florentines, the fashion house opens its first boutique-café. The same operation is performed in Milan with the Just Cavalli Café at Torre Branca, and the boutiques of via della Spiga. Day 8 November 2007, the Swedish giant H & M brings in its stores a whole line drawn by horses, which gets very successful especially among young people, the target audience for the Scandinavian chain.
In 2009 the first Flagship store in Paris and Las Vegas, and the first showroom in Japan. The following year (2010) to celebrate the 40 years of activity, Rizzoli published a book of photographs dedicated to the Florentine fashion house, coinciding with a major event which is held in Paris, in September. In addition, the designer creates limited edition products, including the Denim Collection St Tropez, which is inspired by the first years ' 70-' 80 Roberto Cavalli denim. Known characters of the show have to endorse for the Florentine, as Beyoncé Knowles, Charlize Theron, Victoria Beckham, Michael Jackson, Helena Paparizou, Kate Moss, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, Lenny Kravitz, Drew Barrymore, Sharon Stone, Jennifer Lopez, Gwyneth Paltrow and many more. The latest idea the up is the launch of a line of fine wines, Horses Selection, in addition to opening a luxurious "Cavalli Club" in Dubai, UAE.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.