Roberto Cavalli for Crissa, early 1970s.
Dove-grey printed suede jacket and skirt, pieced from multiple patterns.
Coffee beans, damask roses, cameo medallions, paisley and micro florets, each printed onto suede by the method Cavalli patented, then cut and pieced into a single garment. One color of hide holds every pattern together.
The Piece
The jacket is a cropped blouson. A long pointed collar. Front panels printed with coffee beans in brown; the same motif reverses to white on the sleeves. Shoulder yokes in micro florets. Tone-on-tone damask roses at the sides and across the back. The body gathers into a printed waistband. White snaps with brown centers close the front, the waistband and the cuffs. Puffed sleeve heads, sleeves gathered into deep cuffs.
The skirt is gored and flared to the midcalf, with a curved hip yoke. Each panel carries its own print: charcoal cameo medallions with roses and baroque scrolls, white damask, paisley over a lace ground, coffee beans. The panels are divided by narrow strips of micro-floret suede. Back zip with two snaps at the waistband.
The jacket bears its original "Roberto Cavalli for Crissa, Made in Italy" leather label. Offered together as a two-piece ensemble.
The Provenance
From the wardrobe of Fran Ornstein, whose mother was president of Crissa, the label Cavalli designed for during his founding period. She acquired the set on release and kept it for more than fifty years.
Part of Cavalli's lost first chapter: the founding-period work his later fame obscured, rediscovered in a single wardrobe and documented in Roberto Cavalli: The Painted Years.
In Vogue
The Painted Years was featured in Vogue, September 2026, by senior archives editor Laird Borrelli-Persson, who described the collection as "poster-like art on animal skin."
Read the Vogue feature
The Designer
Cavalli's patented leather printing drew commissions from Hermès and Pierre Cardin. His 1971 Patchwork collection, pieced from printed leathers, was shown in the Sala Bianca of the Palazzo Pitti in Florence in 1972. Couture audiences dismissed it at first. Then photographs of Brigitte Bardot in a Cavalli printed jacket in Saint-Tropez made his work a fixture of fashionable European wardrobes.
The animal prints and red carpets of 1990s Cavalli became so dominant that this first chapter largely disappeared from public memory. No other 1970s Roberto Cavalli clothing is currently offered on 1stDibs.
In Museum Collections
Early printed leather work by Cavalli is held by:
Condition
Good vintage condition, with signs of age honest to a piece that was worn and kept. There are small marks on the skirt front, most visibly on the paisley panel, and tonal variation in the suede nap throughout. All are disclosed in photographs.
Care: suede specialist cleaning only.
Measurements
Jacket: bust [ ] / waist [ ] / shoulder [ ] / sleeve [ ] / length [ ]
Skirt: waist [ ] / hip [ ] / length [ ]
Labeled size [ ], approximately modern US [ ]. Please compare with a garment you own.
Photography + creative visual collaboration -- Anne-Marie Mueschke, modeled by Samantha Murray
