Roberto Cavalli was born on 15 November 1940, in Florence, Italy, to Marcella, a tailor, and Giorgio Cavalli, a mine surveyor, of Italian descent. He is a fashion designer and inventor, best known as the founder of the luxury Italian fashion house Roberto Cavalli.
A major name in fashion, how wealthy is Roberto Cavalli? Sources state that Cavalli has amassed a fortune of over $500 million, as of late 2016. His net worth has been established through his involvement in fashion, and his assets include several houses, such as the luxury hilltop villa in Florence, in which he has been living for over 36 years. The extravagant estate, with pools, a vineyard and a stable of racehorses, is more like a museum of fine art. Cavalli also owns a helicopter, a 62–foot speedboat, and three luxury Ferrari sports cars.
Roberto Cavalli Net Worth $500 Million
Cavalli was raised in an artistic household, as his mother was a tailor and his grandfather, Giuseppe Rossi, an acclaimed member of the Macchiaoli group of painters in Italy. He attended the Academy of Art in Florence in the late ’50s, where he focused on textile print, making prints on knit that put him on the map in the eyes of major hosiery companies in his homeland. He began making T–shirts and jeans that caught on with young Italians, paving his way to recognition, and establishing his net worth.
In the early ’70s, Cavalli patented a leather printing technique, which earned him commissions from acclaimed design houses such as Hermès and Pierre Cardin. He soon presented his first women’s collection in Florence, followed by a short-lived line for men. Soon afterwards, he opened his first boutique in Saint-Tropez, France, and his net worth started to rise.
However, popularity of the minimalistic-chic fashions of new wave designers that dominated in the mid- to late-’80s, Cavalli seemed to lose his footing in the world of fashion during this time, focusing more on his private life. However, in the late ’80s, he began to apply artistic techniques to denim. Then, in the mid-’90s he presented the first sand-blasted jeans in Milan, and invented stretch jeans with Lycra, which gained an considerable popularity. He soon opened several more boutiques in Italy, and during this time he also began showing women’s lines at the Milan Fashion Week, earning a great following among fashion–forward men, women and particularly celebrities, among them singers Madonna, Jennifer Lopez and Christina Aguilera, soccer star David Beckham, the acclaimed rapper P. Diddy and the entire cast of the “Sex and the City” TV show. By the end of the decade, he had launched Cavalli Jeans, a youth oriented line which was later renamed to Just Cavalli, reinforcing his status in the world of denim and reviving his design house’s success. His wealth was significantly boosted.
Cavalli’s first store in the USA was opened in 1999, bringing the designer an enhanced level of fame and financial success; in 2004, his sales in the USA were estimated at $150 billion.
In addition to clothes, Cavalli also designs housewares, accessories, watches, jewelry, fragrance, footwear, swimsuit, underwear and eye-wear, and aside from fashion, Cavalli has also been involved in other investments, including owning several luxury cafe-stores around the world.
The acclaimed designer has created some of the world’s finest outfits, but despite being in business for over 45 years now, at 76 he is reluctant to retire, despite all that he has accomplished. His successful career has enabled him to achieve worldwide fame and to earn an impressive fortune.
In his personal life, Cavalli married Silvanella Giannoni in 1964, and the couple had two children. After their divorce in 1974, he married beauty queen Eva Duringer in 1980. They have three children together and the family resides in Florence.
