Vittorio MISSONI

Managing Director, Missoni

Ever fond of life on the road, Vittorio is Ottavio and Rosita Missoni’s first-born. He began traveling right after high school, spending extensive periods first in England and subsequently in the United States. In both cases these were determinant, formative experiences, for, while perfecting his English, in London he worked for a leading fashion store, in New York in the marketing division of a major department store chain. And so he had the chance to take note, in the field, of his bent for the commercial end of the business. A sector that would later become his specific sphere of competence. Today he is co-owner with brother Luca and sister Angela of Missoni S.p.A., in charge of institutional affairs for the company, becoming the brand’s ambassador to the world. He says: “ Along with my brother and sister, I was born and grew up in the company… I played and did my homework amidst fabrics, colors and machinery: in my personal development all came very naturally, I got involved in that universe without ever being forced to. I never thought about going into any other trade…” From the seventies on, he introduced Missoni to the Japanese, Hong Kong, and South Korean markets, meanwhile consolidating the brand further on the American and European front. Full partner with his siblings in the decisions and changes marking the company today – from the identity of the collections to the spirit of the ad campaigns – he is a key factor in Missoni’s new success, placed once again on the cutting edge of fashion. Person “more in love with the wind than with speed” – in the words of someone – Vittorio Missoni is a collector of vintage motorcycles. “I have fun restoring models from the sixties and seventies, periods when I had a hankering for bikes but could not own more than one,” he points out. Since then he has had occasion to ride all types of motorbikes and still today participates in amateur off-road and speed races with the enthusiasm of always. In the eighties he won a number of speedboat racing contests. Later, he salvaged an old barge, which he keeps moored in Chioggia. “I’m a Mediterranean with a vocation for the road,” he explained in a recent interview. And he spends many weekends on the sea enjoying another favorite pastime of his – fishing. A passion which, as with the one for motorbikes, he shares with his three sons, Ottavio (1984), Giacomo (1988) and Marco (1990) – whom he is fond of calling “some of the people I like to hang out with best.” Vittorio is also an avid reader of travel and adventure books, with a special appreciation naturally for the novels of Ernest Hemingway and he listens to music preferably from the seventies.