Nino Cerruti: Italian fashion great dies aged 91

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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 1989Image source, Getty Images
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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 1968Image source, Getty Images
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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, 1985Image source, AFP
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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 1995Image source, Getty Images
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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, 1999Image source, AFP
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With Catherine Deneuve (C) and Fanny Ardant in Paris in 1999

Dinner with Anthony HopkinsImage source, Getty Images
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Dining with Anthony Hopkins in 1994

Nino Cerruti portrait session in July 1987 in ItalyImage source, Getty Images
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From a portrait session in Italy in July 1987

Nino Cerruti in 1991Image source, Getty Images
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In his studio in 1991

At home with his wife and son in Rome in 1988Image source, Getty Images
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At home with his wife and son in Rome in 1988

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