Nino Cerruti, a fashion pioneer who softened menswear and mentored Giorgio Armani, has died aged 91. His Cerruti 1881 brand was popular in Hollywood, on and off screen, throughout the 1980s and 1990s. News of his death was first reported in Italian media.
Cerruti began her career in fashion after inheriting her family’s textile business in northwest Italy. He launched his first menswear brand, Hitman, in 1957 and later hired a young Giorgio Armani to work in his factory, giving him his first big break.
“Even though our contact has dwindled over the years, I have always considered him to be one of the people who had a real and positive influence on my life,” Armani said in a statement quoted by The Associated Press. “From him, I learned not only the taste for sartorial softness, but also the importance of a complete vision, as a designer and as an entrepreneur.”
Cerruti launched its second luxury brand, Cerruti 1881, in 1967. The brand was a favorite of Hollywood actors like Richard Gere and Tom Hanks. But Cerruti sold a majority stake in the company in 2000 to the Italian industrial group Fin.Part, which took full control of the brand a year later, in order to focus on the family textile business founded by its grandfather. dad.
“Nino Cerruti was a master of witty and subtle understatement; a gentleman who really enjoyed the daily performance of dressing up,” said Italian fashion critic Angelo Flaccavento. “Cerruti comes from generations of fabric makers and had such respect for clothing precisely because he respected the fabric above all else.”
“Nino Cerruti was undoubtedly a creative genius, a passionate man with an extraordinary eye, but also a great entrepreneur,” said Ralph Toledano, president of the French Haute Couture and Fashion Federation. “Nino Cerruti introduced the notion of ‘casual chic’ to fashion and menswear, and was himself a man of rare elegance.”
“Nino was one of the first in our industry to have a strong international dimension, representing to the world that unique combination of creativity and quality that characterized and still characterizes Italian fashion,” said Carlo Capasa, President of Camera Nazionale della Moda. Italian. “He was the first to understand the importance of creativity in men’s fashion, to change the very criteria of dressing and to give way to a young designer with immense talent like Giorgio Armani.”
Plans for a ceremony will be announced in the coming days, a Cerruti 1881 spokesperson said.
