A Feeling Called Fashion

For Angela Missoni, president and creative director of the Italian knitwear label Missoni, family is the fashion formula and the one that keeps its spirit alive

- Komal Sharma

Angela Missoni is vivacious, inspiring, and obsessively interested in the details. She tells a vivid story, paying attention to every aspect— the way the light falls on her face as she poses for a portrait; the precision with which she recalls memories of her first fashion show; and her hopes for her children to carry on the legacy.

She inherited the family knitwear business from her parents, Rosita and Ottavio, who founded Missoni 65 years ago. Since 1997, when she took over, the label has reimagined modern, giddy versions of kaleidoscopic knits that Missoni is synonymous with. And when you meet her, you realise it is Angela’s own sense of freedom that seeps into her designs. Bazaar sits down with her for a cup of coffee and she tells us why fashion is something to be felt, instinctively.

What is your first memory of fashion?

Oh I have quite a few—my mother’s haircut, in 1963 or ’64. It was a bob. And she was never good at putting on makeup, so she would ask my dad to do her eyeliner!