Gianfranco Ferre

Italian fashion designer and style setter. After receiving a degree in architecture, he began designing clothes and accessories,1972, collaborating with ready-to-wear firms. His first women’s collection was released in 1982 and his men’s collection in 1983, at the same time he began to teach a course in dress design at the Domus Academy in Milan. From 1984, his line of perfumes, shoes, ties, scarves, leather goods and other accessories began with his first haute couture collection appearing in 1987. His first Studio-One collection appeared in 1989 at the same time his famous Ferre jeans were starting to hit popularity.

Ferre supervised the restoration of the Guercino frescoes and the dome of Piacenza Cathedral. He combined his love of history with his first international exhibit of "Intimate Architecture: contemporary clothing design," starting in Boston in May 1982, traveling throughout the U.S. and ending in Tokyo in September 1983. Many of his works have appeared in fashion magazines and institutions internationally and he is the recipient of numerous awards including the Knight Grand Officer, Gold Medal from the City of Milan, 1985, Commander of the Italian Republic, 1986 and the Accademia Medicea from Florence in 1990, among others.

Ferre enjoys reading, travel, and collecting helmets, sports gloves, sticks and silver boxes in his leisure time.

The fashion designer died on June 17, 2007 at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan where he had been taken after suffering a massive brain hemorrhage. He was 62.