Since 1953, the tight-knit clan has managed to build one of Italy’s most storied fashion empires while remaining exceptionally lovable.Italian fashion is, on the whole, a story of family businesses built on native soil, an immovable feast of Fendis and Etros working for the greater glory of mother and motherland. But few families tug an outsider’s heart like the Missonis, whose chromatic knitwear has woven through time for more than half a century.

Their sweaters knit on shawl-making machines — the innovation that launched Missoni as a fashion company — and a zigzag as recognizable as any logo are now part of fashion history. But this is just as much a story of Ottavio, known as Tai, and Rosita, the family’s patriarch and matriarch, and their charmingly delightful and totally unpretentious close-knit brood.They are the designers: Angela (Rosita and Tai’s youngest) took over as the house designer in 1996, and her daughter Margherita works on accessories and serves as muse. They are the business stewards: Angela’s late brother Vittorio was the company’s president until 2013, when his death in a small plane accident was a personal tragedy and an international mystery. They are the historians: Another brother, Luca, oversees the archives, and Angela’s son, Francesco, moved back home to work on a cookbook of family recipes. His cousin Marco has modeled on the runway. The family, at home in Sumirago, posed for their ad campaign in 2010. Who better? The Missonis are their own best advertisement.