Rosita Missoni of Italy's eponymous fashion house dies age 93

Rosita Missoni, the co-founder with her husband of Italy's colorful knitwear label Missoni, has died at age 93, a government official confirmed on Thursday.

The president of the Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana, confirmed Missoni's death. Fontana praised the Missoni brand's "famous multicolored textures."

"The passing of Rosita Missoni, a Lombard stylist and entrepreneur known worldwide, saddens us. A great loss for Italy, Lombardy, and the province of Varese where she was born and lived," Fontana wrote in a statement.

Missoni helped develop the eponymous brand's signature look, which influential fashion journalist Bernadine Morris lauded in 1977 as having "elevated knitting to an art form."

Long a fixture of Italian fashion, Missoni, 1953, co-founded the line that became instantly recognizable for its distinctive zigzag patterns and unabashed use of color.

Together with husband Ottavio -- who died in 2013 at age 92 --, they began working on knits from the basement of their new home after marrying in 1953.

Rosita, the daughter of shawl manufacturers from northern Italy, was born in 1931 in the Lombard town of Golasecca.

She was on a study trip to London when she met her husband, known as Tai, who was competing in the 400-meter hurdles at the Olympic Games.

Ottavio Missoni had already begun a business applying knitting to sportswear. He made tracksuits with zippers, an innovation that allowed an athlete to wear his trousers without removing his trainers.

The idea attracted Italy's athletics federation, which adopted it for the London Olympics 1948.

The pair soon moved from tracksuits to sweaters in their new home in Gallarate, northwest of Milan.

"When I got married, four sewing machines arrived with my husband," Rosita Missoni told AFP in a 2016 interview.

A big break came five years later when department store Rinascente in Milan ordered hundreds of close-fitting striped dresses bearing the Missoni label for the first time.

Their fame was assured in 1967 after being invited to present their collection at the Pitti Palace in Florence.

Missoni had asked the models to remove their white bras because they could be seen under the blouses. But under the spotlights of the catwalks, the lightweight clothes became even more see-through.

While not invited the following year, the reputation of the Missoni label grew.

In 1997, Rosita handed over the reins of the fashion house to her daughter Angela while devoting herself to the label's home line, Missoni Home.