Long live the Italian designer, recently deceased at the age of 83 in Florence, known for his passion, in fashion and in life, for glamour, colorful patterns, distressed jeans adorned with jewels, and sensual dresses. “If you love, love until the end. Forgive, if you can. I was never able to do it. Love, love, love. This should be your motto, from the moment you are born until you are reborn.”
Famous for developing an innovative leather printing process in the 1970s and for the first stretch jeans, with thousands of fans drawn to his aesthetic boldness, Roberto Cavalli built an empire in the fashion and home decor industries, attracting both female and male audiences, as well as celebrities, models, Hollywood stars, and musicians who identify with his exploration and interpretation of Nature, its colors and textures, as well as his attention to adornment and detail.
“Never stop believing in yourselves and your abilities because that is the path to travel and the way to blaze your own trail in the great adventure that will be your life! Discover the artist in each of you… look around and learn from Nature. It has millions of years of experience… Surround yourselves with love, because love will be the beacon of your life.” – Roberto Cavalli.
“Just Me,” the book published by Mondadori, is the ‘mandatory’ autobiography in which the creator reveals himself without filters. “Critical and complacent, impulsive and reflective, shy and irreverent, loyal and passionate, rough and sweet: these are just some aspects of the eclectic personality of the great designer Roberto Cavalli, who reveals himself in all his authenticity in this autobiography. A man who loves Gandhi and Che Guevara and hates respectability, rude people, and ignorant graduates. Who understood one thing in life: “If you love, love until the end. Forgive, if you can. I was never able to do it. Love, love, love. This should be your motto, from the moment you are born until you are reborn.” In “Just Me,” Cavalli, self-designated the “artist of fashion,” also reveals some of the most intimate aspects of his life, such as the tragedy that marked his childhood, the guilt for academic failures, the discomfort from phonetic insecurities, and the first professional confirmations. He tells of his first delicate romances, the women he loved, his travels, the friends who accompanied him over all these years, his passion for animals, his children, the many ups and downs of a life that led him to be today a happy man for “looking people in the eyes, happy for having five wonderful children, happy for feeling emotion when I see through the window the first peach trees in bloom, because they announce the arrival of spring, happy for knowing how to laugh with joy, happy for knowing how to cry with emotion, happy for being born, and happy even for dying, when the time comes.”
Milan, New York, Paris, the famous show at Pitti Uomo on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence (2006), the dresses created for the many red carpets, his relationship with Cindy Crawford, Lenny Kravitz, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Jackson, or Sharon Stone… “Just Me” is moving and a “mirror of a simple, anarchic, complex, and genuine man, of a cowboy-king who bares himself in the name of that irresistible audience that are others,” according to the editor’s description.
Long live the creator who opened his first small store in Saint-Tropez in 1972 and whose success led him to exhibit his first leather pieces in the Sala Bianca in Florence, unafraid to compete with Missoni and Fendi. Long live the visionary and fearless man who dazzled us with his rich and exotic patterns, inspired by the worlds of flora and fauna, with his sexy gaze and luxurious lifestyle — he owned a yacht and a property in Tuscany with over a dozen hectares with a helipad, racehorses, Ferraris, and many animals, including a monkey and a tiger. Long live the one who signed one of the first contracts with H&M (2007) and brought thousands of fans to the 5th Avenue store (New York), democratizing luxury and extravagance. Reverence to the man who took to the stage a pink leather evening dress that provoked everyone by creating the first pair of jeans with a worn look and who introduced Lycra to give elasticity to tight jeans — which led to the Cavalli Jeans line, later named Just Cavalli.
Respect for the artist who, in 2011, led Cavalli into the world of interior design, designing furniture, accessories, wallpaper, and fabrics, launching a successful home line with which he equipped Cavalli clubs and cafes in Italy, the USA, and Dubai.
“Dear Roberto, you may have physically left us, but I know I will always feel your spirit with me. It is the greatest honor of my career to work under your legacy and create for the brand you founded with such vision and style. Rest in peace, your absence will be felt and you are loved by so many that your name will endure, like a beacon of inspiration for others, and especially for me,” declared Fausto Puglisi, creative director of the maison Roberto Cavalli (2023).
Images with rights reserved F Luxury
