He was one of the most influential figures in 20th century men’s fashion. Fashion designer and entrepreneur Nino Cerruti has died aged 91, according to Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, the Italian news agency. He died in a hospital in Vercelli, in Piedmont (North-West), where he was for a hip operation, according to the daily Corriere della Sera website.
The employees of Maison Cerruti in Paris and their colleagues from HongKong SAR, China PRC, Taiwan RoC, and its licensed partners join his family, his colleagues from Lanificio Cerruti, his friends and all his admirers in expressing their deepest sadness. for the death of Signor Nino.
Today, we have lost the quintessence of a true gentleman, a man of talent, a revolutionary designer, a man ahead of his time, a philosopher of clothing, an extraordinary mentor, to whom the entire fashion world owes so much for he created his Maison place de la Madeleine in 1967.
It was there that he designed the deconstructed jacket, and invented the famous “casual chic”, favoring movement and the natural elegance of the wearer over statutory clothing.
A great sportsman, avant-garde and visionary, Nino applied this philosophy of sartorial freedom to all areas, from cinema to sport, including accessories and perfumery, creating the iconic 1881, to become a style and an art to live resolutely contemporary. .
Grazie Signor Nino, rest in peace
Details of the ceremony will be communicated in the coming days.
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« A great innovator, a creative visionary and precursor of many realities of today, » said Carlo Capasa, president of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion. “He leaves a great legacy: the courage to invest and believe in young people. He was the one who believed in a very young Giorgio Armani of which he was the master”, added Mr. Capasa, defining Nino Cerruti as “the most chic man in Italy”. Giorgio Armani, precisely, quoted by Corriere, said he learned « with great sadness of the death of Nino Cerruti ». “Nino had a piercing gaze, a real curiosity, the ability to dare,” he added.
Born September 25, 1930 in Biella, Italy, Nino Cerruti dreamed of becoming a journalist. However, he abandoned his philosophy studies in 1950, at just twenty years old, to take over Lanificio Cerruti, the family spinning and weaving factory, Lanificio Fratelli Cerruti, founded by his grandfather in 1881.
Installed in Biella in Italy, at the foot of the Alps, the spinning mill takes advantage of the exceptional purity of the water which makes it possible to wash and dye wool from Italy or Australia or cashmere from Mongolia, reworked in order to create fabrics such as flannel, tweed, cashmere or woolen cheesecloth.
In 1950, on the – premature – death of his father, Nino Cerruti inherited the company. The young man was only 20 years old and then abandoned his studies in philosophy and journalism.
In 1957, he opened the Hitman boutique in Milan where his first collection of men’s ready-to-wear was sold – mainly ultra-luxurious soft suits.
Ten years later, in Paris, he founded the Cerruti 1881 brand, and set up his head office and his flagship store – which now form one – place de la Madeleine. It all started with the launch of a men’s ready-to-wear line with an elegant sportswear style, expressed in suits with comfortable cuts and jeans-shirt combinations. Neither eccentricity nor frills in sight, but a revolution in the male silhouette that operates smoothly.
In 1976, following the same specifications, he launched women’s ready-to-wear. Here too, he rhymes elegance and relaxation by relying on a range of sober colors, natural materials and fluid and comfortable fabrics.
His line of sportswear was very successful in the 1980s and he sponsored top athletes of the time, such as American tennis player Jimmy Connors and Swedish skier Ingemar Stenmark.
But athletes are not the only ones to wear his clothes: the famous French actors Jean-Paul Belmondo and the Italian Marcello Mastroianni will also wear his costumes. Among his many activities, Nino Cerruti, named Knight of Labor in 2000, was also the official designer of the Ferrari Formula 1 team in 1994. In 2001, he sold his « Cerruti 1881 » brand to Italian investors. , then sold to an American investment fund and then to the Chinese group Trinity.
Nino Cerruti stands out as an innovative stylist who parades men and women in the same clothes on the catwalks. Women, including Coco Chanel, loved the designer’s courageous choice to dress them in trousers, at a time when trousers were still considered outrageous. Nino Cerruti has contributed to the emergence of what is called gender fluid, a fluidity between the codes of masculine and feminine that is more topical than ever.
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