Italian designer Rosita Missoni, co-founder of the eponymous fashion house died on Thursday at the age of 93, a company official said. She had launched the business in 1953 with her husband Ottavio Missoni, developing a brand that became popular for its colorful knitwear featuring geometric patterns and stripes, including the signature zigzag motif known as Fiamma. On a trip to London in 1948 to improve her English, she met Ottavio, who was competing with the Italian 400-meter hurdles team at the Olympics in the city. When the company moved its base to the Italian town of Sumirago, north of Milan, the Missonis set up home next door, with most of their windows overlooking Rosita's beloved Monte Rosa mountains. Rosita remained creative director for the womenswear collections until the late 1990s when she passed the task on to her daughter Angela. Ottavio died in May 2013 at the age of 92, four months after their son's plane had gone missing but before the wreckage had been found. Missoni picked Rothschild in 2023 as a financial adviser to explore a potential sale of the family-owned company.