Ottavio Missoni is a man whose entire creative life has been inspired by the possibilities of colour.

When the Italian team marched proudly into the stadium in London for the first post-war Olympic Games of the modern era, twenty-seven year old Ottavio Missoni was there with them. Not only was he there as a competitor in the finals of the 400 metres hurdles, but his fellow national team members were all wearing wool track suits which Ottavio himself had designed with the help of a close friend Giorgio Oberweger.This was the first public showing of a Missoni creation, a track suit called Venjulia, designed by the young Italian athletic champion because he could find nothing on the market to suit his needs.

"There were no fashion press people there to applaud or criticise the creation," remembers Ottavio today of his uncommon designing origins. "But it was the beginning, the first time my work had such exposure."

The son of a sea-faring captain and a Dalmatian countess, Ottavio Missoni - known to his family and close friends as Tai, had studied fabrics at Zara, Trieste and Milan in his teenage years, and by his early twenties had established a small business with his friend Giorgio making tracksuits for local athletes. Yet it was only after a chance meeting with his future bride Rosita, a student studying in Hampstead at the time that the Missoni name began to win the critical acclaim that twenty years later would lead American Vogue to list it as one of the top ten 'big guns' of European fashion.

"When Rosita and I started we didn't think we were doing anything special," reflects Ottavio with a grin. "We were married in April of 1953 and soon after, started a small knitwear factory at Gallarate. It was actually in rooms let to us by Rosita's family, and for many of those early years we lived very much a hand-to-mouth existence." Sitting with him it is difficult to believe the smiling, sun-tanned face before you belongs to a man approaching seventy. When Ottavio Missoni smiles his eyes are as bright and youthful as the knitwear which has made his name.

Ottavio Missoni is a man whose entire creative life has been inspired by the possibilities of colour. For him colour is a means of self-expression as legitimate as any of the great works of art that are on display in the museums and galleries of the world. And this is not just his opinion; far from it. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Dallas and the Costumes Museum of Bath in England all house Missoni pieces. The difference between a Missoni pieces and the more traditional works of contemporary mediums is that the Missoni pieces are textural pieces of wearable art.

"What sets us apart is the fact that we make all our own fabrics. This is our story. This is our signature, and the reason we were seen as different right from the outset," explains Ottavio. Yet it was not the fabric that first brought Missoni to the attention of the Italian critics or the consumers.

It was 1967 in Florence and Ottavio and Rosita - whose family had been involved in home furnishings - were producing knitwear that challenged the traditional concepts with its bold colours and patterns. The couple's shared philosophy that women ought to dress freely and without concern for convention led the young designers to experiment with colours in ways which were so radically different to what was then fashionable, that their knitwear was immediately popular with a generation on the crest of revolt against tradition.

"The Sixties was a period of great change everywhere," says Vittorio Missoni, Ottavio and Rosita's eldest son and head of Marketing and Promotion in the family business. "People were looking for fresh directions in fashion, and the fact that my parents were artisans rather than designers meant that they were not influenced by existing trends. What my parents did was create a revolution in the knitwear industry by combining colours and patterns in ways no-one else had every done. And because the times were such that Italy and Europe in general was ripe for change they found a ready market."

From his earliest years Ottavio Missoni had been in love with painting. His great skill was in the eye for detail he had when dealing with colour. Always inspired by the manner in which colours affected the mood and look of a painting, Ottavio had taken to experimenting with colours so that his paintings had a signature all their own. It was the boldness of this signature, with its emphasis on blending very different patterns through colour, that was finally translated into the knitwear fibres his wife had been weaving.

"When they married, my parents started making active wear," explains Vittorio. "It was a natural progression from the tracksuits my father had made for the Italian Olympic team. The reaction to their innovative style by the critics however, was not favourable at first. It was seen as too unorthodox, too controversial." So controversial in fact, that after one showing of a Missoni collection at Florence's famous Pitti Palace, the couple were asked not to submit again.

The problem it seems had more to do with the presentation of the garments rather than the garments themselves. Faced at the very last minute before sending her mannequins onto the cat-walk with the problem of not having undergarments to match the see-through fabrics they were presenting, Rosita made the decision to send her models out without the then obligatory bra.

The result was a fashion scandal, and the name Missoni was at once taboo in the popular fashion press. Yet if the more conservative elements of the Italian fashion industry snubbed them for their apparent disrespect towards convention, the more liberal and progressive Italian fashion designers immediately embraced the enterprising couple as fashion innovators.

As early as 1958, the Missoni factory in Gallante had been producing garments for leading Italian department stores under other labels. Perhaps more significantly during this time, the husband and wife team took part in creating a look that was described as Post-Paris; with the emphasis on ready-to-wear at affordable prices. The success of this line, with its distinctive striped wool shirt dresses, brought the Missoni's to the attention of influential fashion editor Anna Piaggi who at the time was working with fashion photographer Aldo Castaldi. The exposure the dynamic team received in the Italian press, and their reluctance to continue producing knitwear for other labels - such as Biki, convinced them to put their own name to the knitwear coming out of their workshop.

A fortuitous meeting by Rosita Missoni with stylist and designer in her own right, Emanuelle Khan in New York saw the successful collaboration between the two women which resulted in the first official Missoni collection. Shown at the Gerolamo theatre of Milan, the collection was a breakaway from the traditional schemes of knitwear. It was the very wardrobe that would create such a furore in Florence several years later.

Unperturbed, the rising stars of Italian fashion took their distinctive wardrobe to Milan, and in a show of avant garde disregard for their more staid contempories, put on a startling exhibit which included transparent furniture and floating armchairs. In the midst of mannequins in tight fitting knitted skirts and pullovers, sweaters and cardigans whose patterns and explosions of colour owed more to Ottavio's vivid imagination than strict fashion dictates, the Missoni's were celebrated with cover stories in such influential fashion magazines as Elle and Womens Wear Daily.

"My parents were criticised for being too different," laughs Vittorio. "The basis of what they did then, and what we continue to do today is that we use colour in ways others adopted only after we had pioneered it. When our first collections came out, Pierre Cardin had really only just introduced the concept of ready-to-wear and my parents went to Paris to show off their new style, the French were more ready for the boldness of the look than the Italians were at that stage and my parents were successful."

"Even today, more than twenty years later our use of colour is so particular that people recognise a Missoni immediately," adds Ottavio. "We were lucky in Italy perhaps because there has always been a tradition for producing fabrics that are outstanding, and what we did was continue that tradition. Italians generally put a great emphasis on the fabric above and beyond all other considerations, and it has been my role to make certain that any garment carrying the name Missoni is such that the fabric and colour match as readily as must the fabric and the design.

Despite the pre-occupation with colour and style, for Ottavio and Rosita Missoni the design has always come second to the quality of the fabric with which they have worked. Rosita's intimate understanding of yarns has proven a brilliant foil for Ottavio's sensitivity to colour and patterning. Together they have created a knitwear empire that at a single glance says Missoni. There can be no mistaking the Missoni look; it is at once individual and yet also accessible to a wide range of tastes.

From the outset Ottavio Missoni has been of the belief that people and women in particular ought not be slaves to the fashion dictates of a chosen few. Rather his belief - not surprisingly shared by his wife, is that each woman by virtue of her own self-image and personality, should invent her own fashion. In this way it is no surprise to learn that there is no definitive way to wear Missoni. Two or three Missoni models together give the wearer what one early enamoured observer called 'the put-together' look.

"When one uses fabrics," explains Ottavio, "one addresses certain questions about style and design. Different materials give rise to different possibilities, just as different personalities give a different feel to the same design. I love colour, and when I think of colour I always think of the fabric to which it can be best applied. There is little point in using a certain colour upon a fabric which in the end will not complement it, or with a design to which that colour or that particular pattern will add nothing. We can do anything with fabric, so long as we know what we wish to do.

Luca Missoni, Ottavio and Rosita's other son and the person in charge of design with the family company today, shares his father's outlook. "The design itself is secondary to putting together the colour and the pattern," Luca explains. "The actual design is simply a way of adapting the fabric in different ways. If the fabric itself is not as you would want it the rest counts for nothing. For us as a family, we see ourselves firstly as manufacturers and then as designers. When I'm working I am inspired by the process itself, by the intricacies of developing the yarn and so forth. Once that is right then we can turn our attention to design.

While the Missoni enterprise has expanded to include a very substantial licensing arm, the fundamental principles of weaving the finest yarns and working with as varied a palette of colours as possible in the most novel - or at least the most surprising ways, remains unchanged. Besides producing what many experts regard as some of the finest knitwear in the world, Missoni have diversified their operations - and so extended their quite considerable talents, to include carpets, watches, perfumes, home furnishings and for the past twenty-years, have collaborated with FIAT on the development of the interiors for their cars.

"We have acted as consultants to FIAT since the late 1960's" explains Vittorio, whose role is also to look after the advertising and public relations at Missoni. "We don't design their interiors, but we do work with them on finding the best fabrics to suite the various cars they produce. In fact, we are currently working with them on a new model to be named Sport in conjunction with a new fragrance we have out now".

Fragrances are yet another area into which the Missoni input has been channelled. Working through a licensing arrangement the Missoni name appears exclusively under the Orlane label and to date have produced some very exciting fragrances, the best known of which is perhaps ARIA, the sweet scent packaged to enhance the distinctive Missoni colour emphasis. "Initially we had an agreement with the large American firm Max Factor", continues Vittoria. "However, we have a very different way of doing business in Italy than is true in America. In Italy, you usually deal directly with the family who run and own the business - that's tradition here. One shakes hands and that is your word, so to speak. In America there is constant change of ownership and one never knows exactly with whom one is working. This was true for us with respect to the early fragrances, and we felt lost because with the frequent changes in management came differences in attitudes and approaches. Finally an Italian bought out Orlane from Max Factor, and the Missoni license with it, and the similarity in business approach has benefited both of us.

"Our mother was the creator of Aria in that she developed and refined the smell", Vittorio adds. "From the success of that have come other fragrances, including Sport - which incidentally ties in very well with the active-wear line which has proven so successful for us".

The Missoni active-wear line, like the Missoni fragrances is handled by licence with other companies, with the Missoni family itself having control over the final look of the product. It is the responsibility of the only daughter in the Missoni family, Angela, to oversee all licencing agreements, from the fragrances and watches, to the carpets and home furnishings.

"We started diversifying the family business with the home furnishings", says Rosita Missoni. "We chose to begin with this because it was closest to what Ottavio and I had been doing from the very beginning. In fact, we had always furnished our house using our own fabrics".

My parents realised that although the knitwear will always be what the name Missoni will be identified with, there was room for growth", Vittorio adds. "It was realised that not everyone can afford Missoni knitwear, but by diversifying we could reach a wider market. The first step was the home-furnishings, then the Sportswear line, and of course men's fashion, bathing-suits and carpets.

"Each of these are extensions of what we have always done", Vittorio continues. "We have always been involved with producing products of quality, and whether it be carpets or men's jackets, we apply the knowledge we have in fabrics to create items which we can proudly label Missoni. Our father in fact, is still very involved in developing fabrics and in the conceptualisations of colours, while our mother continues to remain very much involved with styling and the look of the collections - including haute couture.

"With respect to the watches that bear our name we were actually approached by a watchmaker, and because we had the Missoni Sport line going at the time it seemed appropriate to take up the offer", says Vittorio. "In fact, we tried to design a strap made of fabric rather than leather but this has not worked terribly well as yet, but we are working on the concept. As for the watches themselves, they are tremendously successful. What we are looking at now is printing the leather with our distinctive designs".

"Since Rosita and I started out all those years ago, we at Missoni have become very involved in so many other areas", smiles Ottavio. "In many respects we are a design studio in that we do work with architects, with Fiat, with spectacle makers and so on. The name Missoni means a great deal more than knitwear now".

So influential has the distinctive Missoni influence been that in 1973 Ottavio Missoni was awarded the fashion industry's equivalent to the Oscars, the Neiman Marcus Award. Three years later the American Printed Fabrics Council Incorporated awarded the Missoni family their coveted Tommy Award for excellence in printing design, and in 1977 Ottavio himself was awarded an honourary degree in textile engineering from the London College of Applied Science.

"When we started out se realised that we had to show ourselves separately from the mainstream because of the uniqueness of what we were producing", adds Vittorio. "The knitwear line continues to be the one on which the Missoni name is made around the world, but now with our expansion into other areas we feel that everyone can have a little bit of Missoni, and that is good for everyone - including Missoni".