Italian Fashion Innovator Dies at 91

Pioneering Italian menswear innovator Nino Cerruti died at the age of 91, Italian media reported Saturday.

Cerruti died in northwestern Italy, where his family has operated a textile company since 1881, according to the Italian news agency LaPresse.

The Italian daily Corriere said he had been hospitalized for hip surgery.

He was credited with revolutionizing menswear in the 1960s.

On his part, Carlo Capasa, president of Italy’s fashion chamber, remembered Cerruti as “a great innovator” who was also “one of Italy’s chicest men.”

“He was the first to understand the importance of creativity in menswear and to give space to a young designer of immense talent like Giorgio Armani, changing the very criteria of how to dress,’’ Capasa said.

“He was one of the first to have a strong international presence, representing to the world that unique combination of creativity and quality that came to characterize and still characterizes Italian fashion,” he added.

In 1967, Cerruti founded the luxury menswear fashion house 'CERRUTI 1881' in Paris, then the international fashion capital, while maintaining production in Italy.