MILAN — The late Rosita Missoni arrived at Milan’s Sant’Ambrogio church on Tuesday in a coffin that was as unique as the designer herself and that reflected her character and passions — colorful, decorated with personal notes, hearts and flowers drawn by hand from her family, and embellished with a cluster of small playful red and white mushrooms, a reminder of her days in the woods looking for fungi she would then use to flavor the best risotto.
“It’s almost like a mandala, we completed it in five days,” Margherita Maccapani Missoni, Rosita’s granddaughter, said of the coffin in the courtyard outside the church after the funeral service. A few minutes earlier, her voice cracking, she spoke of Rosita, who died on Jan. 1 at age 93, praising her strength and her guidance. “She did not know the meaning of self-pity, and I was her devoted pupil. I will always try to be faithful to her teachings.”
Angela Missoni at the funeral for her mother Rosita Missoni on Tuesday.
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“I tried to write down my thoughts, but there was just much I wanted to say,” said Margherita’s mother Angela, “about what she left not only to me, but to women, how her vision changed so many things in the world.”
She remembered her mother Rosita as “very sweet and affectionate. The way I was raised, the space I was given, made me independent and self-sufficient, which made her very proud. I can only thank her for what she did for me and my family.”
Michelangelo Missoni, Rosita’s grandson through his father Luca, also spoke of her “maternal presence,” while being “an artist, a visionary and an entrepreneur.” He recalled her sensibility and her wise advice. On their walks looking for mushrooms, Rosita would “always find three or four four-leaf clovers and I could never spot one. I asked her how she did that and she responded that ‘in life you have to find luck, it’s not handed to you.’ She taught me to love and respect nature, and told me to leave some porcini [mushrooms] for the snails. For her, the world of mushrooms was magic and mysterious.”
The church was filled to capacity. Rosita’s personality, her values, her dedication to her profession and her close-knit family — and her strength in facing adversity, such as the death of her son Vittorio in a plane crash in 2013 — were reflected in the words of the minister, Giulio Della Vite. He had also officiated the funeral of Tai Missoni, the designer’s husband, in May 2013, and was flanked by the abbot of Sant’Ambrogio, Carlo Faccendini.
Rita Airaghi, Carla Sozzani and Sara Maino at the funeral for Rosita Missoni held Tuesday.
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“Rosita was not only a designer who loved colors and all their combinations, but she was also a strong, avant-garde woman, an example for many other women,” said Veronica Etro, accompanied by her brother Jacopo. “We did not share so many moments together, but I remember her contagious smile and how her eyes would convey not only great empathy and compassion but also a great curiosity of the world.”
10 Corso Como founder Carla Sozzani, flanked by her daughter Sara Maino, said she met Rosita between the end of the 1960s and early 1970s, “at the beginning of the great Missoni success. Right from the start, I was touched by her natural warmth, how she was instinctively endearing, and her vivacious curiosity that made her unique. She was a great lady, capable of approaching anyone with a sincere smile, she had a presence that radiated authenticity. Today, the memory of that light and that kindness remains vivid and indelible, a gift that I will always bring with me.”
A funeral for Rosita Missoni was held Tuesday.
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“As a journalist I found myself frequently dispatched to the Missoni family compound in Sumirago and there Rosita presided as queen, ruling over the kitchen, the vegetable garden and the family table conversation with both an iron fist and great big smile,” said J.J. Martin, the Los Angeles-born editor turned entrepreneur and founder of La DoubleJ, attending with Andrea Ciccoli, her business partner. “She taught me how to make risi bisi (with freshly shucked peas from her own orto [vegetable garden], of course) over her stove and she also made one of the first vintage purchases at La DoubleJ when I first started the company — of course she bought the wildest, wackiest garment in the collection. I think her colorful, scribbled, ornamented coffin at today’s ceremony perfectly reflected the way she used joy and color as a deeply moving transgression. She truly represents the best of what it means to be an Italian.”
A funeral for Rosita Missoni was held Tuesday.
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In addition to the expansive Missoni family — including Jennifer and Giacomo Missoni, the daughter of Luca and the son of Vittorio, respectively, who were in charge of two readings; Rosita’s brother Alberto Jelmini, and Teresa, Angela’s daughter, who conceived a card distributed at the service — among those attending the funeral were Carlo Capasa, head of Italy’s Camera della Moda, and the association’s honorary president Mario Boselli; Maura Basili, head of Italy’s buyers’ association, and other institutional figures such as the president of the Lombardy region Attilio Fontana; the Missoni company’s chief executive officer Livio Proli, its creative director Alberto Caliri and his predecessor Filippo Grazioli; Sara Battaglia; Francesco Ragazzi of Palm Angels; Alessandro Enriquez; Piero Piazzi, and Piero Lissoni.
Outside the church after the service, “Over the Rainbow,” performed by Lucia Minetti, floated through the gray Milan sky, a perfect choice for the queen of colors.
