Nino Cerruti: Italian fashion great dies aged 91
- Published
Nino Cerruti - one of the great Italian designers and fashion entrepreneurs - has died aged 91.
Reports say he passed away in hospital in Piedmont where he had checked in for a hip operation.
![Nino Cerruti in 1989](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/976/cpsprodpb/124F0/production/_122729947_facegetty.jpg)
Nino Cerruti pictured in 1989
He always insisted on trying on his own creations first. Many of them were kept at the textile factory his grandfather founded in the town of Biella in 1881.
"I have always dressed the same person, myself," he once said, according to AFP news agency.
With his experience in producing excellent fabrics at his family's textile mill, Cerruti went into the clothing business in the late 1950s.
![With a model in Capri in September 1968](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/464/cpsprodpb/9793/production/_122730883_capri1960s.jpg)
With a model in Capri in September 1968
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He opened his first boutique in Paris in 1967.
When he asked male and female models to walk down the catwalk in the same clothes, he revolutionised fashion, AFP notes.
![Nino Cerruti rides his bike on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice on March 09, 1985](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/549/cpsprodpb/7FBF/production/_122730723_bike2afp.jpg)
Riding his bike on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice in 1985
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In the '80s, he branched out into Hollywood, designing clothes for stars including Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks.
![Antonio Banderas, Prince Albert II of Monaco and Nino Cerruti at the Cannes Film Festival on 26 May 1995](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/976/cpsprodpb/CDDF/production/_122730725_banderasgetty.jpg)
At the Cannes Film Festival in 1995 with Antonio Banderas (L) and Prince Albert II of Monaco
![French actresses Catherine Deneuve (C) and Fanny Ardant and Italian fashion designer Nino Cerruti (G) leave the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris on December 15, 1999](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/976/cpsprodpb/11BFF/production/_122730727_ardantafp.jpg)
With Catherine Deneuve (C) and Fanny Ardant in Paris in 1999
![Dinner with Anthony Hopkins](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/976/cpsprodpb/5CFB/production/_122730832_hopsgetty.jpg)
Dining with Anthony Hopkins in 1994
![Nino Cerruti portrait session in July 1987 in Italy](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/976/cpsprodpb/0EDB/production/_122730830_jumper2getty.jpg)
From a portrait session in Italy in July 1987
![Nino Cerruti in 1991](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/976/cpsprodpb/4973/production/_122730881_suitsgetty.jpg)
In his studio in 1991
![At home with his wife and son in Rome in 1988](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/976/cpsprodpb/E5B3/production/_122730885_familygetty.jpg)
At home with his wife and son in Rome in 1988
![Presentational grey line](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/464/cpsprodpb/5CA5/production/_98171732_line976.jpg)
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