“A house must have the personality of the people who live in it”

FROM TOP: The living room is a melange of colour and pattern, with sofas covered in Missoni Home ‘Elisa’ flamed linen, cushions in ‘Lima’ stripes, and the Missoni Home ‘Union’ rug; the room is flanked by a vintage floor lamp shaped like a toadstool on the left and a giant Anglepoise lamp on the right; a collection of colour wheel plates, which were used to test glazes at ceramic factories, are assembled on the far left wall. On an antique table, Rosita’s collection of pieces bought in markets and antique shops includes Art Nouveau ceramic potted pansies. OPPOSITE PAGE: A rear view of the house through the garden.

‹‹ Every Saturday she sets the table for lunch (with vibrant plates made by Richard Ginori for Missoni Home, antique glasses and cruet sets, and comfortable Hans Wegner ‘Wishbone’ chairs), and then “I wait to see who will turn up,” the diminutive 84-year-old says, her hazel eyes twinkling. The Missonis, a multi-generational, tight-knit clan, all live nearby — so it’s just as likely her daughter Angela will arrive as one of her grandchildren, Margherita, Angela’s daughter and a regular face for the brand (she also runs her own childrenswear label, Margherita Kids, separate to the family business). Last year at Easter, as a treat for her great-grandson Otto, who was almost two at the time, Rosita dressed the large wrought iron candle chandelier in the dining room with fabric butterflies. The design detail stuck. “Ever since then people keep bringing me more butterflies to add,” she says with a grin. The house, nestled at the end of a long driveway, is moments away from the Missoni studio and factory. Rosita avows that choosing to set up shop and home in the same countryside location, a 30-minute drive north of Milan and very near to where Rosita herself grew up, was the best decision she and Ottavio ever made. The couple had to buy 17 different plots of land to first build the factory, then their family home, which they shared for more than 40 years until his death three years ago. “We decided we should find a place to work where we would like to spend our weekends,” she says. They knew they’d found the right spot when Rosita realised it had the same view of the mountains that she’d so enjoyed from her childhood bedroom in her parent’s home. In the garden, which wraps generously around the house, Rosita proudly points to the ‘Rosita’ rose — she has had a number of flowers, including a camellia and a nerine, named after her. “I could be a bouquet,” she quips cheekily. With big, bold metal letters spelling out ‘ amor’ by her front door, it’s no surprise Rosita’s home is always so welcoming. As it bustles with the family’s comings and goings, it’s an uplifting oasis of joyful colour and happy family memories, exuding, as the fashion icon describes it, an “artiness with a light touch”. In Australia, Missoni Home is available from Spence & Lyda.