Italian Designer Ferré Dies

Gianfranco Ferré, the Italian designer who claimed to have little interest in fashion trends yet became one of the most recognisable names in the fashion-obsessed Italian world, has died.

Although he produced clothes under his own name up until his death, he is probably best known for his accessories. While the rest of his Italian contemporaries, such as Versace and Gucci, produce attention-grabbing It bags and teetering stilettos, Ferré ploughed his own quiet furrow with sensible but high quality leather goods.

It is a credit to his design abilities that he remained such a success, as opposed to being swamped by his more glitzy neighbours. Whereas the others had the patronage of famous actors, Ferré's most famous customer was Margaret Thatcher.

Ferré was born in 1944 in northern Italy. He studied architecture before turning to fashion design and launched his own label in 1978. In 1989 he became creative director of Christian Dior.

That he studied architecture instead of art, as many other fashion designers have done, was reflected in his approach to design. He was always more interested in practicalities than decorative pyrotechnics.

Yet such pragmatism was out of step with the antics of the fashion world in the 1990s, and in 1996 it was announced that he was to be replaced at Christian Dior by John Galliano, a designer with no qualms about being flamboyant.

Instead, for the past 10 years Ferré concentrated on his own label and was named Best Italian Designer six times, won the gold medal from the City of Milan and a Commendatore del Ordine decoration from the Italian president.