Excess is his success

Just Cavalli womenswear pre-spring/summer 2014 collection.The line product by Roberto Cavalli is aimed at young people.

Cavalli studied classical art when he was a teenager in his home city, Florence, which was the birthplace of the Renaissance movement.

The designer's major, early-career innovation also involved taking a different tack, looking at a familiar object in a slightly different way, in his case experimenting by putting prints onto lightweight leather. By taking the process a stage further, the designer worked out that he could integrate leather into denim jeans.

This was in the era when blue jeans tended to be just that, unadorned by any kind of print, or deliberate distressing, studs or jewelry. The pioneering, new-look Cavalli jeans proved to be hugely popular, giving him the confidence to try other ways of mixing and matching.

"After starting by making sexy jeans I began to be the designer of the red carpet," says Cavalli. "I became really, really famous. All the other designers copied me, they could see how Mr Cavalli became famous and they realized it was important to have stars on the red carpet-they started paying people to wear their dresses.

"Excess proved to be my success. Animals are my passion, and my designs reflect that. I took risks when I did the animal prints. After animals my inspiration was flowers. I love to create impact, my design is never geometric, I find it is cold, not sexy, and my fans don't like this kind of thing. I try to make my fans happy and with experience I know what they want."

Cavalli garments are undoubtedly creations that make women feel special: Talk to anyone who has dressed in one of his animal-print, figure-hugging outfits and they will say that it imbues them with an air of femininity and confidence.