A new exhibition in London showcases Mr Ottavio Missoni’s colourful designs.

No one spins a yarn like Missoni, as a new exhibition at London’s Fashion and Textile Museum makes clear. Missoni Art Colour looks at the influence of 20th-century European art on the textile designs of the company founded near Milan in 1953 by Mr Ottavio and Ms Rosita Missoni. It also showcases the patchwork wall hangings designed by Mr Missoni, whose exuberant patterns became the brand’s hallmark, moving Ms Diana Vreeland, legendary US Vogue editor, to exclaim, “Who said there are only colours? There are shades, too!”

There are plenty of both in the show, which mixes the work of painters who influenced Missoni’s work – Ms Sonia Delaunay, Mr Paul Klee, Mr Gino Severini – with more than 100 pieces from the company’s own archive. It also stresses the fact that Missoni has always been a dynastic affair. Both Mr and Ms Missoni’s families owned knitting factories (Mr Missoni made the Italian team tracksuits for the 1948 Olympic Games in London; he also made it to the finals of the 400m hurdles), and they pioneered ready-to-wear shows in the 1960s. Today, the company is run by their grandchildren, though Ms Missoni is still in charge of the home division. “This exhibition guides visitors through a path to deeply understand the story of a style and a brand,” she says.

Central to that understanding is the focus on Mr Missoni’s work, with his paintings being shown alongside his patchworks. “Both colour and material are the elements essential to my craft,” he once said. “As for my patchworks, they are a natural extension of my work, of the pleasure I get from playing with these little pieces of multicolour knit fabrics where each single one deserves particular attention, since it has a story and a life of its own.” With Missoni Art Colour, museum-goers have a chance to see how all those stories – textiles, art, fashion, colours and, yes, shades – knit together.

The ethos of Mr Ottavio Missoni is very much alive in the way the brand works and creates today. Unlike many of its peers, Missoni creates all of its own fabrics from the yarn upwards. In fact, the design process is always rooted in the colours of the season, which are chosen before anything else. Then come the swatches – a series of experimental weaves that explore different textures and patterns. Only after that does the designing of actual garments begin. As the brand’s creative director Ms Angela Missoni puts it, “We work to the timescale of a weaving mill, then to the deadlines of a fashion house.”

**Missoni Art Colour runs until 4 September

Read about our feature on the Missoni factory here, watch the film below **