Italian menswear innovator Nino Cerruti dies at 91

By COLLEEN BARRY
AP Fashion Writer

MILAN (AP) — Italian media say Nino Cerruti, the Italian fashion designer credited with revolutionizing menswear in the 1960s and who gave Giorgio Armani his first fashion break, has died. He was 91.  The Italian news agency LaPresse reported that Cerruti died in northwestern Italy, where his family has operated a textile company since 1881. Cerutti inherited the family business, based in the city of Biella in the Piedmont region, at age 20. He launched his first menswear company,  Hitman, in 1957 near Milan, and Cerutti 1881 in Paris a decade later. Armani, who was hired as a young talent at the Hitman factory in the mid-1960s, says Cerruti taught him “the importance of a well-rounded vision, as a designer and as an entrepreneur.”