Roberto Cavalli died in Florence at 83. The Italian designer built a name on animal prints, high hemlines and very low waistlines, and the Guardian called his aesthetic “unapologetically sexy.”
His break came with leather. Cavalli patented a method of printing on it and showed the technique in his debut collection in Paris, where a pink leather evening gown drew commissions from French houses including Hermès and Pierre Cardin. He launched his own label in 1970.
Denim was next. His autumn/winter 1994 collection showed the first sand-blasted jeans, and a year later he worked with Lycra to produce stretch jeans. They sold at once. He started a separate line, Cavalli Jeans, which was later renamed Just Cavalli.
Celebrity clients and a sprawling brand
Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren shopped at his Saint-Tropez store, Limbo, in the early years. The 1990s brought a younger, wealthier crowd, helped along by David and Victoria Beckham, Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez.
The company grew well past clothing. Underwear, eyewear, footwear, watches and perfume came first, then homeware, pet clothing, vodka, wine, restaurants and members’ clubs.
The money did not hold. The business began posting annual losses in 2014. A year later the family sold a 90% stake to the Italian private equity firm Clessidra, in a deal reportedly valuing the company at €390m. It filed for bankruptcy protection in March 2019 and was bought that year by Dubai-based Vision Investment Company. Sicilian designer Fausto Puglisi became creative director in October 2020.
Cavalli lived as loudly as he designed. His main home was a 13-hectare Tuscan estate with a vineyard, racehorses, Ferraris and a menagerie that included parrots, iguanas, a monkey and a tiger. He also owned a helicopter and a superyacht, Freedom, whose design was inspired by the movie Batman.
Tributes
Puglisi wrote in a statement from the brand: “It is the greatest honour of my career to work under your legacy and to create for the brand you founded with such vision and style.”
Giorgio Armani, in a post on X, said he could not imagine “a vision of fashion more distant from mine” than Cavalli’s, yet had always respected him. “Roberto was a true artist, wild and wonderful in his use of prints, capable of transforming fantasy into seductive clothes.”
Victoria Beckham posted on Instagram: “He’ll forever be an icon.” Adriana Lima wrote on X, “Unapologetic in style & spirit. We lost a legend today.” Jennifer Hudson called him “always one of my favorite designers.”
Early life
Cavalli was born in 1940 in a small Tuscan village. His grandfather, Giuseppe Rossi, was a celebrated painter of the Macchiaioli movement. After German soldiers murdered his father, Cavalli moved with his seamstress mother and siblings to Florence. He began experimenting with textiles in 1957 while studying at the Academy of Art there.
He married Silvanella Giannoni in 1964 and had two children before they divorced in 1974. In 1980 he married Eva Duringer, a former Miss Universe contestant he had met while judging the pageant in 1977. They had three children, and she became his business partner until the company was sold. They divorced in 2010. In 2023 he announced the birth of a sixth child, a son, with his partner, the Swedish model and actor Sandra Nilsson.
