Roberto Cavalli

Roberto Cavalli was born in 1940, in Tuscan capital of Florence. His father, Giorgio, was a mine surveyor by profession and his mother, Marcella, a tailor. Marcella was the daughter of artist Giuseppe Rossi, a member of the Macchiaoli group of painters in Italy.

In 1957, Roberto Cavalli enrolled at Florence's Academy of Art with plans to either follow in his grandfather's footsteps or become an architect. Her concentrated in textile print. While still a student, he made a series of flower prints on knit that caught the attention of major Italian designers. He started making T–shirts and jeans with a luxe–hippie look that caught on with young Italians. For a time, he worked for Mario Valentino, the Naples designer known for his well–crafted leathers and suedes. In the early 1970s, he invented and patented a revolutionary printing procedure on leather, and he started creating patchworks of different materials.

In Milan in 1994 Roberto Cavalli presented the first printing patterns onto stretch denim. This boosted his revenues considerably. He began showing his dressier line at Milan's Fashion Week in 1994 and soon his racy dresses and signature zebra–print items were appealing to the Hollywood celebrities. They included singers Jennifer Lopez and Christina Aguilera, British soccer star David Beckham, and rap mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.

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 the main line, which is sold in over fifty countries worldwide, Roberto Cavalli designs RC Menswear as well as the youth aimed line Just Cavalli, launched in 1998 and comprising today men’s wear, women’s wear and accessories, eyewear, watches, perfumes, underwear and beachwear. Besides the main line, which is sold in over fifty countries worldwide, In 2002 Roberto Cavalli opened his first cafe-store in Florence, revamping it with his signature prints. This was shortly followed by the opening in Milan of the Just Cavalli cafe at Torre Branca and another boutique on Via Spiga.

In 2002 Roberto introduced his first perfume, Roberto Cavalli Perfumo. Since then, Roberto Cavalli’s perfume and fragrance portfolio has been evolving like his clothing lines with unique bottle deigns and patterns. In 2003 he launched Roberto Cavalli Man and Just Cavalli Her which was launched in 2004. In 2005, Roberto brought out an interesting fragrance which he named Serpentine and in fact the bottle has the pattern of a snake's skin. He continued with fragrances and later brought out Just Cavalli Him Blue which was introduced in 2006, Just Cavalli Pink, introduced in 2006 and Cavalli Black for men that was launched in 2007.

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