Missoni exhibition opens in London on May 6th

Missoni Art Colour features at the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey, London, 

from May 6 - September 4

Missoni – the Italian power house well-known for its multi-coloured zigzagging knit pattern - is the subject of an exhibition in London entitled Missoni Art Colour.

The installation at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London, was first shown at the MA*GA Art Museum in Gallarate, Italy, and features more than 40 paintings by artists including Lucio Fontana and Sonia Delaunay, from both the MA*GA Museum and private collections in Italy, many of which have never been shown in the UK before.

Photo: My Fashion Connect Global

While giving insight at how 20th century European art influenced Missoni founders Ottavio and Rosita Missoni, the exhibition presents previously unseen textile studies, paintings and patchworks of knitted fabrics by Ottavio Missoni.  Also on display are a selection of fashion looks from Missoni's archive, from 1953 to today.

According to co-founder Rosita Missoni (shown here at a recent event celebrating UK design talents), she and the late Ottavio originally met in 1948 when London hosted the Summer Olympics that year, and thus having the exhibition in London is particularly poignant for the brand they started.

Their children Vittorio, Luca and Angela Missoni, the creative director, are the key driving force behind the Italian name today.

The "Missoni Art Colour" exhibition was organized by the MA*GA Art Museum together with Missoni and The Woolmark Company, whose merino wool features in many of the garments on show.

A Missoni moment at the Texprint prize presentation ceremony in Paris.

Left to right, Texprint creative director Peter Ring-Lefevre, Texprint chairman Barbara Kennington,
Rosita Missoni and Gilles Lasborde, Premiere Vision Design managing director.

Texprint's prize-giving ceremony held annually during the September edition of the prestigious Premiere Vision Paris fair ( for fashion, fabrics, design and related trade) brings great expectations every year, as much for design and textile professionals who await the announcement of the winners, as for the selected designers who participate in the UK charity's competition in hope the event would bring them good career prospects.

This September, without exception the event held last week was graced by the presence of the grand dame of European fashion, Signora Rosita Missoni, who is matriarch of the fashion dynasty of vivid stripes and iconic zigzag stitches.  Her special role at this year's Texprint was to present the 2015 Awards.  Four textile design graduates chosen from 24 short-listed outstanding design graduates won prizes for Colour, Pattern, Fashion and Inteiors.

Rosita Missoni in centre, flanked by Texprint 2015 prize winners Emma McCluskey,
Anja Alexandeersdottir, Jessica Leclere and Joanna Robins.

Now in her 80s, signora Rosita's words of wisdom for the class of 2015 were to "believe in yourselves and follow your dreams", while she nostalgically recalled how she met her late hustband Ottavio and together they co-founded Missoni some 60 years ago and found international fame although they came from a humble beginning, after setting up a small knitwear workshop in Gallarate, not far from their home village near Milan to being discovered by American Vogue magazine in New York. And the rest is history, as they say, and today the Missoni iconic zig-zag pattern needs no introduction.

"I am very pleased to be here to applaud the young talents," said Signora Rosita to the 24 finalists set up stands at Texprint during this September's Premiere Vision Design fair as part of Premiere Vision Paris.  "Premiere Vision Designs is a wonderful opportunity to bring them to the attention of the industry and the fashion world which need to invest in new fresher talents and ideas.  I with the 24 designers to keep their curiosity, enthusiasm, passion and to transform them in wonderful careers," said Rosita Missoni.

Summing up the 2015 Texprint Awards, chairman Barbara Kennington said, "The Texprint village at PVD (Premiere Vision Designs) provides a unique opportunity for all 24 designers to showcase their unique and exciting collections, to meet icons in the world of textile design such as Rosita Missoni, and to greatly enhance their understanding of the industry and the opporunities globally.






The 2015 Texprint Awards and winners are as follows:-

The Texprint Colour Award, sponsored by Mode Information goes to Emma McCluskey who studied Textile Design at Duncan and Jordanstone College of Art & Design

The Texprint Pattern Award is presented to Joanna Robins, who graduated from University of West England (Bristol) having specialised in Textiles for Fashion Design

The Texprint Fashion Award winner if Jessica Leclere, who has just competed an MA in Textiles - Knit, at the Royal College of Art (RCA).

The Texprint Interiors Award goes to Anja Alexandersdottir who studied Weae at Heriot Watt University.

Jessica Leclere also won the Woolmark award.

The judging panel this year who made the selection in London in July included British courturier Nicholas Oakwell, Ariane Bigot, associate fashion director for Premiere Vsion, Sarah Lawry, colour & materials designer at Aston Artin Lagonda, and Julie Hall, head of design at Bedeck which is also giving a special new award to be announced shortly.

For more details on Texprint, a charity that has for more than 25 years nurtured, mentored and promoted UK textile design graduates, click here for their website.

All photos by Lucia Carpio for My Fashion Connect.