MOTHER LODE
The Italian house of Missoni is renowned for two things: its colourful zigzag knitwear and its tightly woven matriarchy. Vogue meets the charismatic clan at home.
The house of Missoni is renowned for two things: its colourful zigzag knitwear and its tightly woven matriarchy. Anders Christian Madsen meets the charismatic clan at home. Styled by Gianluca Longo. Photographed by Danilo Scarpati.
An hour on the autostrada out of Milan and into the Lombardian countryside, through a tiny village, across a quiet field and past a humble chapel lies Angela Missoni’s modernist villa. Stepping inside its cool stone-clad spaces, filled with colourful glassware, artworks and textiles, trilling Italian consonants and passionate laughs can be heard coming from the garden. Beyond the terrazza with views that stretch into the hills overlooking Lake Varese, the Missoni family is assembled on the sprawling lawn, wearing house knitwear and looking like multicoloured berries strewn across a very green cake. In a fashion dynasty that truly lives the way it dresses, Missoni garden parties are legendary. “Laid-back, comfortable, beautiful but easy-going clothes. It says a lot about the lifestyle,” Margherita Missoni, 35, reflects, cosied up on a cushion-scattered rattan sofa. Angela’s eldest daughter, she married in the garden in 2012, following a ceremony officiated in the little chapel leading up to the property’s gates and only minutes away from her grandmother Rosita’s residence, where garden parties became a tradition in the 1960s.
Today, four generations of Missonis come together here at the weekends, with Rosita, 86, at the head of the alfresco table, sipping wine and lunching on a wealth of Italian delicacies cooked to Angela’s precise instructions by the family chef. This year, the gatherings are more relaxed than ever. “I made it,” says Angela, 60, creative director of the brand her parents founded, with a sigh of relief. In June, she sold a minority stake to private equity fund FSI in a €70 million deal. “I was proud as a daughter, because my mum could see that this company has a future,” she says. “I made everybody agree on this project and now the third generation can look to the future in a positive way. We hope that in five years we can go public.”
In this garden scenario, where women’s voices easily overpower male ones, the mother-daughter dynamic that makes the Missoni world go round is palpable. “Everyone thinks we’re all girls in the family, but actually there are more boys. They’re just more discreet,” says Teresa, 30. Angela’s youngest daughter, she gave birth to a boy, Zeno, in 2017.
“My grandfather always said to whoever was pregnant: ‘Let’s hope it’s a girl,’” her sister Margherita, herself the mother of two young boys,
Augusto and Otto, recalls. “In a certain way, I am a bad example,” Rosita quips. The original brains behind the business, she founded the company as a sportswear label with her late husband, former Olympic athlete Ottavio Missoni, known as Tai, in 1953, with four sewing machines. It is now a A$225 million fashion empire, and under the direction of Angela, who took over 20 years ago and brought in Margherita in 2010, first to oversee accessories and then licensing and childrenswear, although she is no longer officially involved with the business.
Does it mean something different to be a woman and a mother in the Missoni family than it does to be a man? Margherita laughs heartily for quite a while. “Yes, it does indeed. It’s definitely a matriarchy.” Are the expectations greater for the girls? “Maybe,” she reflects. “If you’re a girl you’re more reasonable, you’re able to understand; it’s a given. They don’t question the fact that we’ll be able to do something.”
In the distance, Margherita’s brother, 33-year- old Francesco (he authored The Missoni Family Cookbook, published earlier this year, and works for a Milan-based start-up called Notomia), is negotiating with his English bulldog, Johnny, while his cousins, the three adult sons of Angela’s late brother Vittorio, are lounging round rustic garden tables, reading books and occasionally climbing trees (in full Missoni, mind you).
“My father grew up with a mother who would never wake him, not to disturb him. Even to go to school. She was telling my mum: ‘Don’t wake them up. They’re going to get nervous,’” Angela recounts, asked about the nonchalant free spirit that runs in this family’s genes. “Since we were kids we were free to do anything we wanted,” Giacomo, 30, son of Vittorio, says.
Giacomo and his brother Ottavio Jr, 34, are both in the family business, while their brother Marco, 28, is currently working for Australian label
In a fashion dynasty that truly lives the way it dresses, Missoni garden parties are legendary
Deus Ex Machina, with plans to join Missoni in the future. “My grandfather used to say: ‘You can do whatever you want. You just have to be happy.’ This is our way of thinking,” Marco explains. “He was also lazy,” Giacomo says with a laugh. How did he create all of this, then? “It’s Rosita! Rosita was the business lady,” he asserts. “She made him express his best ways,” Ottavio adds.
All terribly handsome, you don’t get the idea that these boys, so politely bohemian, spent their late teens picking up girls in Lamborghinis the way the sons of other Italian fashion dynasties might have. “Maybe on motorbikes,” jokes Ottavio, a fervent biker.
“They’ve been brought up to follow their passions, whether it’s motorbiking, cooking, snorkelling and scuba-diving, flying … but they’re all grounded, it’s true,” Angela says of the next generation. “Yes, I did renovate this beautiful house five years ago, but they always had a normal life. We don’t need …” she pauses. Stuff? “Come on …” Angela laughs, gesturing at the enormous property. “This is a big luxury, of course. But we all know that. They all have common sense.”
With new funding and a bid for international expansion, what is the plan for the younger Missonis? “We’ll see over the next years. I have two daughters, who are both talented and passionate about fashion. Having a partner, the new generation will come in if they’re needed and have the talent,” Angela says.
“We have a world-known reputation, which is so surprising considering the way we live. The name is much bigger than the business,” Rosita admits. “We need to expand. We need to build more boutiques.”
Angela recalls how, the morning after the FSI deal was announced in June, Rosita telephoned her. “She said: ‘I was thinking, do you remember 20 years ago, Hermès only had one shop in Paris?’” Angela says with a laugh. “I said, yes, Mum, I remember!”