Angela Missoni Grew Up in the Pages of Vogue Inline
Photographed by Henry Clarke, Vogue, February 19711/9“Diana Vreeland is the one who invited my parents to New York in 1969—she introduced them to all the stores, to all of the people. And my mom always remembered the fact that the first day she arrived they had a big meeting with all of the Vogue editors and [Vreeland] told them, pointing a finger, she told them, ‘Those people are geniuses.’ And then she organized all of the appointments with all of the stores. And things were just happening, like that. My mom remembers staying at the Plaza, and somebody comes knocking, somebody called from downstairs, there’s someone coming up, and actually it was Stanley Marcus, in person, knocking at the door. And then it was Marvin Traub, coming in to have a look at the collections. Everyone coming in, just like that. The fashion world was much smaller at that time!”
Photographed by Alexis Waldeck, Vogue, March 19722/9“That yarn was a space-dyed yarn. It became iconic in the 1970s, and then everyone was doing it, but it started with my mother. It was yarn that my great-grandfather had used for embroideries and fringes; my mother remembered that yarn and went to the factory and started knitting with it. No one had ever thought of doing that with a space-dyed yarn before. So whatever you see in the world from that moment on came from my mother’s idea. What you see today, everywhere, on sports garments, on shoes, on everything, everywhere, that’s where it came from.”
Photographed by Irving Penn, Vogue, May 19723/9“This dress, I remember, was made for a fashion show that they had in Capri, in a kind of open theater there. I went with my parents; that was the first time I went to Capri. I was 13 years old. Two years ago, I was in Capri, and I went into an old photography shop, and I looked up [at the walls], and they had pictures of that same fashion show. Exactly that fashion show. And so I asked to have a copy of a picture, and it turns out it was a very famous picture from that time, because of this dress. The girl was turning on the catwalk, on the podium, and when she turned like that, the dress was so light, and her breast came out, and she was naked! It was a scandal.”
Photographed by Arthur Elgort, Vogue, May 19744/9“This was the first swimwear, really, the first season Missoni was doing swimwear to present with the collections. That was what I started to refer to when I took over and started to do the proper Mare collections of bathing suits. I love this look, because it’s a solid color, and I know that Missoni at the time was selling a lot of solid pieces, also. And it’s a beautiful picture.”
Photographed by Deborah Turbeville, Vogue, June 19755/9“This is really a styling trick, because it was in fact a pareo as a skirt, and what they used as a top was actually a turban, or a headband. So this is really 100 percent styling. When I saw this picture again, I was like, ‘I don’t remember that top in the archive or my memories . . .’ And then I remembered it was a turban. It was a good interpretation!”
