Vittorio Missoni

Vittorio Missoni (1954 – January 4, 2013; confirmed June 27, 2013) was an Italian CEO of Missoni, the fashion house founded by his parents in 1953. Missoni is credited with expanding Missoni into a global brand after his parents handed control to him and his two siblings, Angela and Luca, in 1996.[1]

Missoni was born in Gallarate, Lombardy, Italy, in 1954, to Ottavio and Rosita Missoni.[1] His parents had opened a small knitwear store in Gallarate in 1953 shortly before he was born.[1] They released their first articles of clothing using the Missoni label in 1958.[1] The company, which is known for a distinctive zigzag knitwear pattern, became successful in Italy during the 1960s.[1] The three Missoni children – Vittorio, Angela and Luca – became involved with the day-to-day operations of the family business.

In 1996, Ottavio and Rosita handed control of the Missoni fashion house to their children.[1] Angela and Luca took responsibility for the creative direction of the Missoni line, while Vittorio Missoni handled the business aspects of the company.[1] Vittorio Missoni initially led the marketing and manufacturing departments of Missoni.[1] However, he was widely credited with expanding the fashion house into a full global brand after becoming Missoni's chief executive officer in Europe and the United States.[1] Under Vittorio Missoni, the company's trademark pattern and name expanded into household and cosmetic products, including perfume and towels.[1] A Missoni Hotel, the first of several locations, debuted in 2009 in Edinburgh, Scotland.[1] In 2011, Missoni partnered with the American retail chain, Target Corporation, to release a line of limited-edition, lower priced Missoni products, which proved so popular with shoppers that Target's web site crashed due to demand.[1]

The plane in which Missoni and his wife were flying, a forty-four-year-old Britten-Norman Islander, disappeared on January 4, 2013, after taking off from Los Roques Airport in the Los Roques archipelago, where they had been vacationing, en route to Caracas, Venezuela.[2] Missoni was 58 years old at the time of the plane's disappearance.[2] His wife, Maurizia Castiglioni, and their friends, Guido Foresti and Elda Scalvenzi, as well as two crew members were also on board the plane.[3] The search for the missing aircraft took more than six months.[3] His father, Ottavio, died in May 2013, before the plane was located.[3]

On June 27, 2013, it was confirmed that Missoni's plane was found in the Caribbean Sea, north of the Los Roques archipelago.[3] The aircraft was located by the crew of C&C Technologies' research vessel Sea Scout, an oceanographic ship, on the fifth day of their search for Missoni.[3][4]