Roberto Cavalli 1940 - 2024

Iconic fashion designer and serial yacht owner Roberto Cavalli left for the better World on the twelfth April 2024, in his loved Florence at the age of 83. Roberto Cavalli was reported suffering from a long illness, and in his last hours was supported by his since fifteen years companion Sandra Bergman Nilsson. Born fifteen November 1940 Roberto Cavalli had a hard upbringing as his father was killed in the 1944 Cavriglia massacre, a Nazi reprisal on civilians, when he was four. Cavalli enrolled at the local Florence art institute, concentrating on textile print. While still a student, he made a series of flower prints on knit that caught the attention of major Italian hosiery manufacturers. In the early seventies he invented and patented a printing process on leather, and started creating patchworks of different materials, debuting these techniques in Paris, and winning commissions from the likes of Hermès and Pierre Cardin. At age 32 Roberto Cavalli presented his first namesake collection at the Salon for Prêt-à-Porter in Paris. He brought it to the catwalks of the Sala Bianca of Palazzo Pitti in Florence, and later his Milano Collezioni featured jeans made of printed denim, intarsia leathers, brocade, and wild-animal prints. In 1972 Cavalli opens his first boutique in Saint-Tropez, three years later Roberto Cavalli fashion house is opened incorporating "femininity, spiritedness, and leopard print" as its pillars. Roberto Cavalli acquired appeal for its stable and unvarying looks despite the changing trends. In 1994 at the Milan fashion week Cavalli presented the first sand-blasted jeans. By December of the same year, he had opened boutiques in Saint Barth, in the French Caribbean, followed by others in Venice and Saint-Tropez. Besides his main line, which is sold in more than fifty countries worldwide, Cavalli expanded his fashion house with the RC Menswear, Just Cavalli, Angels and Devils children, Class, and Cavalli-Cafe lines. Roberto Cavalli was on 18 June 2013 awarded an Honorary Master Diploma in Fashion Management from Domus Academy in Milan, during a ceremony after which he held a lectio magistralis. Roberto Cavalli will sell his company in March 2015 to Clessidra SGR fund of Claudio Sposito but keeping a minority share in the company. Roberto Cavali was married two times and had six children; Silvanella Giannoni in 1964, Eva During in 1980 , and his last companion since 2010 Sandra Nilsson Bergmann. As yachts go Roberto Cavalli owned five yachts; two super yachts, two maxi ribs, and a twelve meter sports cruiser. Roberto Cavalli first boat was a mid seventies Tecnomarine Tiger C42 as designed by Paolo Caliari, in 1999 he takes ownership of a Novamarine HD17 the largest rib build in that time, in 2004 he launches the Spadolini designed custom build Baglietto 40,8 mt Hull.10232 which he will keep till 2015, this is followed by the Novamarine Black Shiver 220 which he takes ownership in 2014, and then in 2018 he launches Spadolini designed custom build Cerri 27m Freedom. Roberto Cavalli also re-designed the interior of m/y Thunder during the 2015 refit of the 1998 build Oceanfast 49.98 meter Hull.71 as designed by Jon Banenberg.