Italian designer Roberto Cavalli, whose penchant for python and flamboyant animal prints made him the darling of the worldwide jet set for a few years, died Friday (Apr 12) at 83, data media acknowledged.
Italian data firm ANSA reported that the designer died at dwelling in Florence, city the place he was born, after a protracted illness.
First seen inside the Nineteen Seventies on stars resembling Sophia Loren and Brigitte Bardot, his skin-baring, eye-popping sorts have been nonetheless favoured years on by later generations of celebrities, from Kim Kardashian to Jennifer Lopez.
Cavalli had a method for Ferraris, fat cigars and tailored shirts unbuttoned to disclose his tanned chest. He married a Miss Universe runner-up, owned a purple helicopter and a Tuscan vineyard, and was on a first-name basis with Hollywood A-listers.
Born November 15, 1940 in Florence, Italy’s premier leatherworking centre, Cavalli was acknowledged for his use of printed leather-based and stretchy, sand-blasted jeans.
The designer was tapped in 2005 to exchange the Playboy Bunnies’ scanty uniform – true to sort, he launched one mannequin in leopard print.