His passing was confirmed by the brand.
The Roberto Cavalli company shares condolences with Mr. Cavallis family.
His legacy remains a constant source of inspiration, said Roberto Cavallis CEO Sergio Azzolari.
Eva and Roberto Cavalli
He exuded Hefner vibes (minus the robe) when he took hisfall 2001bow smoking a pipe.
(The designer was in fact asked to redesign the Playboy bunny costume in 2005.)
Born in Florence in 1940, Cavallis maternal grandfather was a member of the Macchiaioli group of Italian Impressionists.
Priscilla Presley wears a Roberto Cavalli jacket; Riley Keough wears a Roberto Cavalli mini dress; and Lisa Marie Presley wears a Roberto Cavalli satin blouse and vest.
The psychological impact was expressed physically through a stutter.
To support the family, his mother started sewing at home, taking in seamstresses to help her.
At 17, a confident Cavalli enrolled at the Academy of Art in Florence to study art and architecture.
Liya Kebede in a Roberto Cavalli shirt and skirt.
The designers next breakthrough came about while trying to make good on a lie used while girl-chasing.
Cavalli related the following anecdote in thatPanoramainterview.
In September 1970, the young divorce crashed a party at leather designer Mario Valentinos house.
Barbara Wilhelm in a Roberto Cavalli dress and Fred Leighton jewelry, photographed at Lady M Cake Boutique.
She then introduced him to the host, who asked to see them.
The designer rose to the challenge, using by applying his printing technique to the thinnest glove leather.
(Hippie florals in a dusty Cacharel palette were all the rage at the time.)
Raquel Zimmermann wears a Roberto Cavalli dress.
Valentino wasnt the only one impressed; Hermes wanted to acquire the exclusive rights to the technique.
I was flying back from Paris and in that aeroplane I was thinking.
I thought, maybe now, if I design one collection, I could meet a lot of models!
Roberto Cavalli with Melanie Chisholm, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown, Geri Halliwell, and Victoria Beckham at the Roberto Cavalli fall 2009 menswear show.
That was always a principle of my life!
the designer told Leitch.
Thirty-years into his career, Cavalli had another breakthrough in 1993 when he elasticized denim for a second-skin fit.
It was theSex and the Citytime, it was all about Cavalli, Cavalli, Cavalli.
The designer, who became a byword for glamour, was even written into the popular series script.
Their battle over space later escalates, and she tells him, Its Roberto Cavalli!
I threw it out and I love it.
What more do you want?
More, more, more!
Roberto was a lion, his life was larger than life the former says.
Cavalli lived in a technicolor world in which there was neither room for neither gray, nor subtlety.
Additional reporting by Luke Leitch.
Liya Kebede in a Roberto Cavalli shirt and skirt.
Barbara Wilhelm in a Roberto Cavalli dress and Fred Leighton jewelry, photographed at Lady M Cake Boutique.
Raquel Zimmermann wears a Roberto Cavalli dress.
