Vintage Italian Missoni Carpet “Ski Resorts”

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Vintage Italian Missoni Carpet “Ski Resorts”

About the Item

Designed by the creative genius behind the house of Missoni, this dazzling vintage art carpet features a fantastic assemblage of postcards covered with colorful landscape scenes that depict Europe's most prestigious ski resorts. Names like Saint Moritz, Zermatt and Campiglio conjure visions of iconic alpine resorts complete with ski lodge villages, evergreen mountains and stylized ski lifts depicted in a colorful, stylized manner that is synonymous with Missoni. The textural black-and-white background is speckled with basket-weave patterns and graphic animal print designs that are juxtaposed against the colorful mosaic frames of each postcard scene. Even the undulating borders feature a clever pattern of zigzagging triangles and artfully inscribed Missoni insignias. This stunning vintage Missoni carpet is a work of art that showcases the artist's love of color, pattern and texture. Ottavio "Tai" Missoni (1921—Present) is the patriarch of one of the most renowned design houses in Italy. For 50 years, Ottavio and his wife Rosita have been working side by side and creating distinctive, highly influential knitted textiles and fashions. After three generations, Missoni has become a trendsetting lifestyle brand that captures the zeitgeist in a glamorous, folksy, bohemian way. The Missoni story begins at the 1948 Olympics in London where Ottavio and Rosita first met. Ottavio was a hurdler who had a startup business selling knitted tracksuits, including the outfits that his Olympic team wore. His future wife Rosita came from a family of Italian shawl makers that used knitting machines extensively. Together they established the brand in 1953. Although the couple's first systems could only produce simple stripes, these graphic patterns became Missoni trademarks. Through Ottavio and subsequent generations, the Missoni family shows a genuine love for texture, color, natural fibers and handcrafted details. The Missoni duo is always depicted working passionately in studios surrounded by colorful woven knits and textile art. These heaps of scraps and color tests inspired one of Ottavio's creative pastimes that flourished in the 1970s and 1980s. Inspired by carpets from the East and quilting techniques from around the world, he created a series of intricate tapestries and patchwork collages containing fantastic snippets from the brand's many fashion collections. By modern or historic standards, Missoni's fabulous textiles for the floor and his tapestries for the wall take color, pattern, texture and juxtaposition to an unprecedented level.

Creator:
Missoni (Designer)
Dimensions:
Width: 78 in (198.12 cm)Length: 78 in (198.12 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Wool,Hand-Crafted
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
20th Century
Date of Manufacture:
Mid-20th Century
Condition:
Seller Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
Seller: 469331stDibs: LU8597835075

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Missoni

In 1953, Ottavio “Tai” (1921–2013) and Rosita (b. 1931) Missoni opened a small knitwear shop in Gallarate, Italy, paving the way for what would become an iconic style of colorful chevron knit.

Missoni began with a tracksuit, which featured zippers down the legs because, as Rosita recalls it, “Tai was too lazy to take off his shoes when putting them on.” The couple’s fashion really took off, though, once they discovered the Raschel knitting machine on a trip to a shawl factory. The machine enabled the Missonis to knit multiple colors in a zigzag pattern, a motif that would go on to become synonymous with the Missoni brand across everything from its alluring vintage day dresses and sweaters to its purses, seating and rugs.

Missoni held its first fashion show in Florence in 1967 and caused a bit of a sensation when the models’ Lurex dresses proved translucent under the lights at the Pitti Palace. Scandal aside, the show went down in history as a hit, and the Missonis soon made their debut in the United States with the help of legendary fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who gave the variegated Missoni stripe the Vogue seal of approval, saying, “Who says a rainbow has seven colors? It has many shades.” (It was also Vreeland who reportedly introduced the Missonis to Neiman Marcus president Stanley Marcus, effectively shepherding the brand to the American market.)

Missoni’s many-shaded rainbow would soon become an emblem of the 1970s fashion scene, earning the brand a permanent place in the fashion canon. In 1973, the New York Times proclaimed: “Missoni’s weaved garments have ended up universal materialistic trifles, as Vuitton sacks and Gucci shoes.”

The brand branched into the home market in 1983, with Rosita overseeing this new venture, which included furniture, textiles and accessories. Daughter Angela succeeded her mother at the helm of the brand, where she still serves as president and creative director today; her brother Luca is CEO, while her daughter Margherita is creative director of offshoot M Missoni.

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