Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli died at the age of 83

ROME (AP) – Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli, known for his flamboyant, flamboyant style and textile innovations, has died at age 83, his company said Friday.

“Dear Roberto, you may no longer be with us physically, but I know that I will always feel your spirit with me,” wrote Fausto Puglisi, creative director of Roberto Cavalli, in an Instagram post from October 2020.

“Rest in peace, you will be missed and loved by so many that your name will live on, a beacon of inspiration to others, especially me,” Puglisi added.

Born in Florence on November 15, 1940, into a family of artists, Cavalli was orphaned at the age of four when his father was killed in a Nazi attack in the 1944 Cavrilia massacre.

Cavalli became known in the early 1970s for his animal prints and the over-sexualized style that would remain his trademark throughout his long career.

“It is with deep regret and great sadness that Roberto Cavalli Maison is involved in the passing of its founder, Roberto Cavalli,” its company said in a statement. “From humble beginnings in Florence, Roberto has become a name known throughout the world and loved and respected by all. (His) legacy lives on through his creativity, his love of nature, and his cherished family.”

After establishing his own fashion house in the early 1970s, Cavalli quickly became a popular brand loved by celebrities such as Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow and Beyoncé.

Cavalli patented a new method of printing on leather and debuted one of his trademark patchwork jeans at Palazzo Pitti in Florence in 1972. He revolutionized denim, created sandblasting to give jeans a distressed look and added lycra to jeans to make them sexier. , extending.

Cavalli often drew inspiration from the natural world, featuring animal motifs and fish-shaped sequins. The Cavalli woman ranged from hippie to sassy rocker, in airy diaphanous gowns, seductive beaded dresses or sexy skinny suits.

As his fashion house recalled on Friday, Cavalli explained his “animal” inspiration with a famous quote: “I copy the dress of an animal because I love to copy God. I think God is the greatest designer.”

He abandoned the design about a decade ago after giving 90% of the company to private equity group Clessidra. The company is now managed by Auriel Investment SA.

“Don't call me a designer. My talent is to find a fabric, a dress, something that makes a woman special, always thinking about fashion, it's ready-to-wear, like dreaming of ready-to-wear,” she wrote in her autobiography: Me”, published in 2013.

He told The Associated Press that the woman he was wearing was “a very confident woman.” A woman who can show that she is strong, but at the same time soft and romantic.

Cavalli is survived by his partner since 2014, model Sandra Nilsson, and six children. He became the father of his sixth child at the age of 82.