Designer Roberto Cavalli has died in Florence at age 83, Paralel.Az reports citing WWD.

Cavalli came from a family of artists, as his grandfather Giuseppe Rossi was a leading figure of the Macchiaioli movement, with works exhibited at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Cavalli brought his artistic sensibility to his fashion designs, after studying at the Art Institute of Florence.

He launched his namesake fashion brand in 1970, unveiling his first collection at the Salon du Prêt-à-Porter in Paris held at the Porte de Versailles.

In the early 1970s he invented and patented an innovative printing process on leather, and opened his first small shop, called Limbo, in Saint Tropez in 1972, which was so successful that the following year he was invited to show his leather wares in the storied Sala Bianca in Florence alongside Missoni, Krizia, Fendi and Basile.