MILAN — The Biagiotti Group was established on July 30, 1965, and the anniversary marks “60 years of many stories of fashion, beauty and enterprise that weave into one bigger pioneering story of three generations of women at the helm,” said Lavinia Biagiotti Cigna, president and chief executive officer. In addition, “it’s a company that is still entirely family-owned and all-around Italian,” she pointed out proudly.
Laura Biagiotti fall 2025
Marco Mantovani/Courtesy of Laur
Her grandmother Delia Soldaini Biagiotti founded the company as an atelier in Rome, and her mother Laura turned it into an international brand.
Lavinia credits them both as her mentors. “My grandmother Delia was truly emancipated. Orphaned at 14, in 1928 she started working to feed her three siblings, moving up the ladder to become a company manager until she decided to open her atelier to spend more time with her daughter Laura. From a passion and a hobby, it became a business.”
Fondly, she also recalls her father Gianni Cigna, who died in 1996, for being the business strategist of the company.
Laura Biagiotti with her husband Gianni Cigna and daughter Lavinia Biagiotti Cigna
Asked if she ever envisioned a different future for herself, she said, “No, I never had any doubt I would work for the company.” She rose to the occasion in 1997, when she was only 18, a year after her father’s death. “It was instinctive and natural. I had always seen my parents as a very solid couple and I did not want my mother to be alone. I wanted to become her copilot.”
Known for her expertise in developing luxury cashmere pieces, Laura Biagiotti contributed to the success of Italian fashion around the world. Her first namesake collection debuted in 1972 at the Sala Bianca in Florence, together with designs by Ottavio and Rosita Missoni, Walter Albini, Krizia’s Mariuccia Mandelli and Gianfranco Ferré.
Laura Biagiotti backstage at the brand’s first fashion show in 1972.
She was the first Italian designer to present a fashion show in China. The event took place in Beijing on April 25, 1988, followed by a show at the Grand Theater of the Kremlin in February 1995. Biagiotti was the first Italian designer to present a fashion show in the former venue of the USSR Communist Party in Moscow.
Laura Biagiotti in China in 1988.
Courtesy of Laura Biagiotti
In addition to having in 2010 received the title of Cavaliere del Lavoro, one of the highest honors bestowed by the president of the Italian Republic, Laura was the first woman to be awarded the Premio Leonardo for her exceptional contribution in promoting Italian fashion worldwide.
Since taking the helm of the company when her mother died in 2017 at age 73, Lavinia has brought forward her legacy, passing through the pandemic, staging shows in Piazza del Campidoglio, a symbol of the Roman Renaissance designed by Michelangelo Buonarroti on the Capitoline Hill and home to the City Hall, and in other key locations in the Italian capital, such as the museum of the Ara Pacis, the contemporary art museum MAXXI, and the Centrale Montemartini, the city’s first power plant dating back to 1912 that was converted into a museum in 1997, with classic archeology and precious mosaics contrasting with the original diesel motors or the huge steam boiler.
Laura Biagiotti at her show in Egypt in 1997.
Her passion for the arts derives from her parents, who assembled one of the best collections of paintings by Futurist artist Giacomo Balla, now owned by Fondazione Biagiotti Cigna, and totaling around 300 masterpieces.
Lavinia Biagiotti in front of the “Genio Futurista” artwork by Giacomo Balla.
Courtesy Photo.
Laura Biagiotti became a friend and muse of French artist René Gruau, who created several illustrations for her, including one of her image reproduced on signature tote bags produced in the brand’s colors of reference — red, black and white.
Ever since the launch of the first fragrance in 1982, Biagiotti has had a successful perfume business, including the Roma and the Forever lines, among others, and licensed to Angelini Group in 2014 after 20 years with Procter & Gamble.
Lavinia has also continued to invest in the Marco Simone castle, the headquarters of the brand, located in Guidonia, about 10 miles from Rome. At the end of the ‘70s, her parents bought the medieval castle, restored it and built a golf course to prevent additional urbanization of the area. Lavinia is also president of the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, and she succeeding in bringing the Ryder Cup there in 2023, the first time it was held in Italy, attracting 271,000 visitors from all over the world.
Lavinia Biagiotti Cigna with the Marco Simone Castle in the background.
Stefano Masse
“I am pursuing the development of Marco Simone as a destination,” she said. “After all, I think we are moving away from ownership to experiences, people are seeking emotions.”
She is digitalizing the archives, which comprise 150,000 pieces collected over the years, and revealed she is restoring an antique Roman villa in the name of her mother. Additionally, she confided that her dream would be to open a resort.
The company has been supporting the territory, contributing to the restoration of several landmarks, ranging from the Cordoned Staircase of the Campidoglio and the Grand Stage Curtain of the Fenice Opera House in Venice, to the Palazzo Farnese Fountains in Rome and the Fountain of Dea Roma in the Italian capital, as well as the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, where the brand has been showing more than 70 collections since 1998. At the moment, Lavinia is planning a donation to the city of Milan.
“Rome is my roots and Milan has given me wings,” she said.