The famous Italian designer Nino Cerruti died at the age of 91, AFP learned on Saturday evening from a source in the fashion industry, confirming the announcement by the Italian media.
His death took place in a hospital in Vercelli, in Piedmont (north-west) where he was for a hip operation, according to the Corriere della Sera website.
“It’s a giant among Italian entrepreneurs who is leaving,” reacted the Deputy Minister of Economic Development Gilberto Pichetto. Nino Cerruti introduced “casual chic” to high-end menswear by inventing the first deconstructed jacket in the 1970s.
He was then a master of casual sophistication, but felt that the term “elegance” had “a terrible taste of the old”, preferring the concept of “style” to it. “To have style is to mix culture and art”, according to Nino Cerruti.
Born September 25, 1930 in Biella, he was forced to abandon his philosophy studies at the age of 20, after the death of his father Silvio, to take over the family textile factory and thus bury his dream of become a journalist.
In the 1960s, he met a certain Giorgio Armani, four years his junior, and hired him as a designer for men. The duo, which had a profound impact on the fashion world, separated a decade later, after Armani decided to found his own house in 1975.
Among his many activities, Nino Cerruti, named Chevalier du travail, was also the official designer of the Ferrari Formula 1 team.