Missoni mania

Last year was a high point for fashion collaborations when luxe Italian brand Missoni teamed up with mass-market retailer Target. For the first time, the soccer-mom set was able to get their hands on the knitwear house’s signature zigzag pattern in eye-popping colors — if not on clothing ensembles then on bags, blankets… even water glasses. Missoni mania reached such a fever pitch that Target’s website crashed due to the volume of orders.

After that high-low hit, the question wasn’t “Missoni who?” but “Where can I get it?”

In the Philippines, the answer to that is easy: Adora, that’s where.

The chic department store in Greenbelt 5 is currently carrying Missoni’s spring/summer 2012 collection, which is getting a major boost from the afterglow of last September’s fashion frenzy.

Knit wit: Missoni continues its tradition of vibrant colors and prints in its 2012 collection.

Young ’uns may be familiar with the face of Margherita Missoni, the lithe young beauty who carries those striking prints with such aplomb in the brand’s campaigns, but our mothers and grandmothers before us were there when Missoni happened.

Talk about a fashion dynasty. Missoni spans three generations, and, unlike other Italian fashion families, there are no scandals, vendettas or buyouts by huge conglomerates staining their colorful history. The family, based in Sumirago, Italy, less than an hour away from Milan, is still privately owned and very close.

Founders Ottavio and Rosita Missoni met at the 1948 Olympic games in London. Ottavio, or Tai, as he is better known, was a track-and-field athlete who made it to the final of the 400-meter hurdle. His family owned a small knitting factory that produced the Italian Olympic team’s tracksuits. Her family owned a shawl factory that dyed and embroidered fabrics.

It seemed to be a match made in fashion heaven. After they married, they set up a business in the basement of their first home, buying yarn-spinning machines that gave them more leeway to produce colors and patterns.

Drew faith: Actress Drew Barrymore is the face of the new Missoni ad campaign.

The first Missoni dress came out in 1958, a brightly colored striped shirtdress with a complex weave — the prototype of the Missoni look. Soon, their colored and patterned dresses in finely woven yarns started to appear in fashion magazines.

The following year they moved to bigger workshop. The year after that they converted a shawl-making machine to one that could make vividly colored, super-light dresses. The Missonis began to experiment with rayon-viscose, which would become one of their favorite fabrics.

In 1966 Tai and Rosita’s first showing in Milan was a huge success. Considering how staid and limited knitwear was at the time, Missoni broke with the past in terms of their kaleidoscopic use of colors, patterns and designs.

They caused a stir in ’67 when Rosita, realizing her models’ underwear was the wrong color, sent them out on the runway with nothing beneath the knits, which were rendered transparent by the catwalk lighting.

Sensing a pattern here: Fashionable celebrities Leighton Meester, Nicole Richie and Vanessa Minnillo step out in Missoni.

Missoni pioneered the informal soft wardrobe that’s such a celebrity essential today. In ’69 Women’s Wear Daily put them on the first page and wrote: “Missoni is in the lead with one of the most sinful dresses among those inspired by Art Deco.”

During this period Tai and Rosita also met legendary Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, who was so taken by their clothes she famously exclaimed, “Who said there are only colors? There are also tones!” Vreeland became Missoni’s fairy godmother in the US, introducing them to buyers and championing their look, which Rosita described as “mix and match … we experimented with all sorts of weaves and methods: space dyeing, tie dyeing.”

Missoni became the most powerful force in the field of knitwear, raising the once-humble knit to the level of art, and their patchworks and tapestries were exhibited in museums as such.

While Missoni sons Vittorio and Luca ran the business, daughter Angela, now 51, initially rebelled and went her own way to raise a family. By 1992, however, she had returned and started designing her own collections that went against the Missoni grain, featuring dark, solid-colored apparel with nary a stripe or zigzag in sight. Her mother encouraged her in this new direction, however, and Angela ended up reinvigorating the brand; Missoni’s DNA runs so strongly in her blood that she knows every collection ever done and never needs to refer to an archive.

Angela’s daughter Margherita, 27, meanwhile, was brought to her first fashion show at two so it’s safe to say that the Missoni aesthetic is ingrained in her as well. Though she went through her own rebellious phase as well, studying philosophy, taking a stab at acting and living in New York for five years, Margherita made her own choice to join the family business at 26, despite her mother’s worry that she would have to take on the burden of such a heavy heritage.

Life’s a beach: Fifties label Missoni has successfully transitioned into a high-fashion 21st-century brand. Missoni’s summer 2012 collection is available at Adora.

“My biggest influence is my grandmother,” Margherita says. “She has been almost a second mother to me. Most of my aesthetic has been passed on to me directly by her. We are very close.”

On her own, Margherita produced her first full accessories collection for Missoni and collaborated with her mom on the collection for Target.

Almost 60 years later, Missoni is an international lifestyle brand with divisions in home, eyewear, fragrance, and even hotels. They’ve smoothly made the transition to a dynamic, 21st-century brand that appeals to the international, trend-conscious consumer.

At the end of the day, for Missoni’s three talented generations, blood is thicker than the fleeting trends of fashion, and we — who’ll never look at knits the same way again — are reaping the stylish benefits.

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Missoni is available only at Adora, located on the second and third levels of Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center, Makati.

Not your usual knits: Missoni’s kaleidoscopic use of color and patterns has raised knitwear to an art form.