Mariuccia Mandelli, a pioneering female fashion designer who created the Italian brand Krizia and was credited with inventing hotpants, has died at the age of 90, associates announced Monday. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi led tributes to a woman he described as one of the architects of Italy's huge ready-to-wear fashion business. "She was a leading figure in the fashion world and in "Made-in-Italy" Renzi said.
"Creativity and the celebration of colour alongside a very Milanese sobriety - that was the mark of Krizia." Mandelli, who died suddenly at her Milanese home on Sunday, headed the fashion house that bears her name from its humble beginnings in the 1950s until 2014, when she sold the by-then ailing company to Chinese designer and entrepreneur Zhu Chongyun.