FABRIC OF LIFE

Italian fashion house matriach Rosita Missoni opens the doors to her artful home in the Lombardy countryside

osita Missoni says with a laugh, “I’m an accumulator, not a collector.” The matriarch of the mighty fashion house famous for its distinctive signature zigzag and striped knits ( see ‘Colour Works’ on page 43) stands on the terrace of her two-storey villa in Sumirago, a small town at the foot of Italy’s Lombard Alps, to take in the beauty of the majestic Monte Rosa — currently framed by a russet orange glow of autumnal trees in her expansive garden. Inside, everywhere the eye rests there are vignettes of vivid, energetic colour and pattern, which pop out against the calming, streamlined Modernist lines and white walls of the house she built in 1971 with her late husband, Ottavio. “I cannot stay away from colour,” she enthuses, picking out pieces in each room by way of example, from the cherished paintings by Modernist Italian artists Gino Severini and Alberto Savinio (an endless source of inspiration for Missoni’s fabric designs) to Susie Cooper teacups and saucers found for a song at London markets like Portobello Road and Alfies Antique Market. In the conservatory, work by textile artist and painter Kaffe Fassett (who collaborated with Rosita on designs for Missoni in the 1970s) hangs amid a jungle of baskets with trailing ferns and indoor palms decorated with ceramic parrots. On the floor there are toadstools, one of Rosita’s favourite motifs, knitted in Missoni prints by the factory’s workers as an 80th birthday present. “A house must have the personality of the people who live in it,” she says of her love for mixing things up, using fabrics, cushions and rugs to lend layers of interest and warmth. Naturally, much of it is sourced from the Missoni Home collection, imbued with big bold stripes, flowers and chevrons on everything from sofas and beds to poufs, which she has been designing since 1997. A wonderful collection of plates, originally used as colour wheels for glaze sampling in ceramics factories and found at markets on Rosita’s travels over many years, decorates one wall in the living room. “I was fascinated by all those colours and enjoyed using them every day until I realised how precious they were, because I could no longer easily find them. So I decided to decorate with them instead.” Everything in Rosita’s home is there because it brings her pleasure. “When you have confidence in the things you love, everything looks right together.” The dining room, with its floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides that fill the space with shafts of light and the glorious colours of the garden outside, is one of her favourite spots. »