Elio Fiorucci has passed away on July 20th, 2015 at the age of 80.The Italian designer was famous for having invented the stretch denim. Fiorucci started to work in his father’s footwear boutique at age of 17. Inspired by American casual coolness and the style of the swinging London, he opened his own store in 1967 in Milan selling mainly basic cotton T-shirts and denim jeans.
In 1970 Elio Fiorucci launched his ephonimous brand Fiorucci together with its iconic two-angels logo. Fiorucci developed a stretch jean silhouette to show off women’s curves and suddenly his designs spread globally, attracting the attention of major celebrieties and fashion insiders such as Greta Garbo, Andy Warhol and Cher. In the same year he opened a store in New York City on 59th Street.
In 1990, he sold his company to the Japanese jean brand Edwin. In 2003, he launched a ready-to-wear line called Love Therapy and eventually signed a licensing agreement with the Italian retailer Gruppo Coin for the production and distribution of the line.
He discussed his retailing philosophy this year in an interview with i-D magazine. “I wanted people to find what they came for, to be happy and spend little money to get exactly what they wanted,” he said. “Because in the end the best thing in the world is to be loved. The greatest need of man is to be loved.”