Ottina

Stefano Ottina (1934). Fashion designer and businessman who was born into a Milanese family working in textiles for generations. After graduating from Bocconi University, he founded a clothing company called Punch with Vittorio Solbiati in 1965, which became famous for the fitted “tapered body” cut of their shirts and made Punch’s fortune. Ottina practically reinvented the shirt, using natural and mixed fibers and special weaving techniques for the fabrics. In 1975, New York’s Madonna Store held a retrospective of Ottina’s work, displaying the Punch shirts worn by Jack Nicholson, John Lennon, Elton John, Paul Getty Jr, John Travolta, Richard Gere, and Robert Rauschenberg. In 1994 Punch, which then had a turnover of about 3 billion lire, was bought by Fenicia, a historic Italian tailoring company. From then on Ottina devoted his time to design and research into the history of the textile field, putting together a collection of fabrics.