Mila Schon

Mila Schön was a Dalmatian Italian designer whose geometric, art-influenced couture earned a serious place in Italian fashion. She showed at the Pitti Palace in Florence in 1965 alongside other major Italian designers and opened her own boutique on Milan's Via Montenapoleone in 1966. Her work is held by museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum, which speaks to her standing.

The house signature is the double-faced wool coat, where two layers of wool are stitched together so the garment needs no traditional lining. Schön was also known for intricate beading and clothing that was often geometric, described as fashion-world examples of cubism. Those construction signatures are what set her tailoring apart.

She was born Maria Carmen Nutrizio in Trogir in 1916 to wealthy Dalmatian Italian aristocratic parents. After her family lost their estates following World War I, they moved to Italy. Her surname came from her husband, Aurelio Schön, an Austrian precious metals dealer she married during World War II, and it was sometimes spelled Schoen.

Unable to afford Parisian couture after her husband's business failed and the couple divorced, Schön paid skilled Milanese seamstresses to copy the latest couture. She had been a client of houses like Balenciaga and Dior in her earlier years of wealth. By 1958 she was working in a high-fashion atelier in Milan, though her own first show didn't come until 1965.

The house expanded well beyond made-to-measure. Schön's menswear line and her first prêt-à-porter collection for women both appeared in 1971, and by the 1980s the offering included handbags and shoes, lingerie and watches, perfume, swimwear and eyewear. She was also the first Italian designer to show ready-to-wear in Japan.

Her client list was strikingly high-society. It included Jacqueline Kennedy, Lee Radziwill, Marella Agnelli, Farah Diba, Imelda Marcos and Brooke Astor. At Truman Capote's 1966 black-and-white ball, Marella Agnelli was voted best-dressed guest in a kaftan embroidered by Schön's craftswomen.

Yes, she took on notable design commissions. She created uniforms for Alitalia in 1969 and for Iran Air in 1972, and she designed the Italian national team's outfits at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. These projects show how far her reach extended beyond the runway.

Much of her aesthetic drew on the modern art she collected. Her designs borrowed from artists such as Victor Vasarely, Kenneth Noland, Alexander Calder and Lucio Fontana. That's why her clothing reads as geometric and was likened to cubism by critics.

Ownership has changed hands several times. In 1993 the brand was taken over by the Japanese conglomerate Itochu, which later sold it to Burani, and in 2007 it was acquired by the Italian company Brand Extension. So while the founder died in 2008, the label itself continued under different owners.

Mila Schön died on 5 September 2008, just before her 92nd birthday. Shortly after her death, Milan's Palazzo Reale staged a retrospective of her work. Combined with pieces held at the Met and the V&A, her legacy is preserved as part of fashion history.