Roberto Cavalli

Roberto Cavalli is an Italian luxury fashion company founded in 1970 by the designer of the same name in Osmannoro, near Florence [3]. Best known in fashion for its exuberant animal prints and a maximalist aesthetic, the house also runs a fragrance line that is its main point of contact with the beauty market. The founder built his early reputation on a printing technique for leather and denim before staging his first Paris show, and the company has since grown into a multi-category label spanning ready-to-wear, accessories and scent.

The brand remains active. Its founder, Roberto Cavalli, died in 2024 at the age of 83 [5], but the company he started continues under new ownership, and a current holiday fragrance catalogue for 2025-2026 appears on its official site. Ownership passed through two changes in the 2010s and is now held by Vision Investments, part of the DAMAC group.

Roberto Cavalli came from modest beginnings in Florence and was, according to the company's account, a grandson of a painter of the Macchiaioli movement whose works hang in the Uffizi. During the 1960s he developed a printing process for leather and denim through his work on textiles, a technique that drew commissions from established labels including Hermès and Pierre Cardin [3]. He founded his own house and made his Paris debut in 1970 [5], opening his first boutique in St. Tropez in 1972.

Cavalli's signature look crystallised in the 1990s. A 1994 Milan Fashion Week collection applied tiger and wildlife motifs to jeans, and animal prints became a defining element of the label. In 1998 the house launched a younger diffusion line, Just Cavalli [5], which extended the name into accessories, sunglasses, watches, fragrances, lingerie and swimwear.

The fragrance business began in 2002 with the first Roberto Cavalli eau de parfum, a floral woody musk created by the perfumer Maurice Roucel [6]. The scent line later expanded to more than twenty-five releases. In 2007 the company became the first Italian fashion brand to create a limited collection for the fast-fashion retailer H&M [3].

The founder retained control of the company for decades before selling it in the 2010s. In 2015 the Italian private-equity firm Clessidra SGR acquired a 90 percent stake [3]. Four years later, on 28 November 2019, Hussain Sajwani, president of the DAMAC group, bought the company through the private investment vehicle Vision Investments [3], which remains the current owner. The headquarters have been in Sesto Fiorentino, near Florence, with a relocation to Milan announced in 2020.

Roberto Cavalli occupies the luxury tier and trades on a bold, sensual reading of Italian glamour. The founder was associated with a maximalist outlook, favouring "more is more" over minimalism [5], an approach reflected in the label's prints and silhouettes. On its fragrance pages the company frames the scents as expressions of that same spirit, describing them as inspired by femininity and sophistication and saying each fragrance conveys the bold character of the brand.

In fashion, the house is credited with pioneering sand-blasted denim and with being the first to show Lycra stretch jeans, alongside its printed-leather work. In fragrance, the current women's range includes lines such as Paradiso, described by the company as evoking a sun-soaked, tropical mood, as well as Serpentine, Nero Assoluto and the Just Cavalli scents.

The fragrance operation runs through a third-party licensee, and the arrangement changed in the 2020s. Coty Inc. held the licence from 2011 [3]. According to WWD, Inter Parfums signed the exclusive worldwide licence for Roberto Cavalli fragrances effective 6 July 2023, superseding Coty and managing the business from Florence [4]. Inter Parfums valued the fragrance business at roughly 40 million dollars and outlined plans for new launches, including a major women's scent for 2025 [4].

The company is active. The death of its founder in 2024 did not halt operations: the label continues under Vision Investments, and its fragrance line, now under Inter Parfums, remains in production with a live 2025-2026 catalogue on the official site. The brand's scope is global.