His mother, Teresa de' Vidovich di Capocesto e Rogoznica, was a Dalmatian Countess while his father, Vittorio Missoni, was a Friulian sea captain who moved to Dalmatia while it was under Austrian rule.

[12] The success of the Venjulia suits, which took into account the need of athletes for functional, warm garments enabling freedom of movement, led to their being worn by the Italian Olympic team in 1948.

[5] The Missoni's experimentations with machine-knitting led to the discovery that clothing-weight fabrics made using machines originally designed for shawls and bedspreads could be surprisingly lightweight.

[10] They supplied designs to the department stores Biki and later, La Rinascente in Milan, where in 1958, the first Missoni-labelled garments, a line of colourful vertically striped shirtdresses, were displayed in the window.

This show proved controversial due to the unplanned transparency of the models' clothing under the lights, revealing a lack of underwear and leading to comparisons to the Crazy Horse cabaret.

[10] The Missonis went on to feature in many leading fashion publications, including Women's Wear Daily, Vogue, Marie Claire, Elle, and Harper's Bazaar, and were championed by influential editors such as Diana Vreeland and Piaggi.

[11] Ottavio was the colourist and pattern designer whose watercolour paintings and gouaches formed the basis of Missoni textiles, whilst his wife developed the cuts and shapes of their garments.

[11] In 1975, an exhibition of Ottavio's textiles and related paintings, curated by Renato Cardazzo, was held in Venice, and Ferruccio Landi wrote an article titled "Missoni, a Work of Art, Pullover Size".

[18][20] In 1983, Ottavio and Rosita designed their first stage costumes for a production of Lucia di Lammermoor, starring Luciano Pavarotti, at the La Scala opera house in Milan.

[11] On 22 October 2013, the deaths of Vittorio and the other passengers on the plane were confirmed by the Italian news service and the city of Caracas' chief prosecutor Ortega, after meeting with the victims' families.