Missoni show during Men Fall 2012 Fashion Week

"Target opened us up to a whole new untapped audience for our business. We still are not even in China. Can you imagine! So there still is a huge potential for our brand," said Angela Missoni, the house's creative director.

Missoni is also Italy's most innovative knitwear label, so much of this collection consisted in reinterpreting Anglo classics in knitted outfits – from the patchwork vests so loved by Dorset farmers to the casual smoking room jackets of English nobility to gentlemanly knitted pin-stripe suits.

Admirably at Missoni there is a charming weakness for the frankly wacky. This show's best were a series of white-soled sneakers, whose uppers were made in knitted black wool with golden highlights. Gold also shone through beautiful little neck details, that added a posh sense of humor to shirt collars. Missoni also was in synch with a big new Italian trend – a muddied print nylon that has been seen on several catwalks, managing to mix rural and urban with one fabric.


No meeting of “masstige” – mass marketing and prestige products - was more successful in 2011 than Missoni's link-up with Target which spawned pop star like mania for the Italian fashion label.

Presented in a beautifully decayed former bell foundry west of Milan's gargantuan central train station, the show was a charming display of how path-breaking can be a combination of a smart creator and a devoted team of craftsmen.