Story highlights
- The plane went missing in January
- It was found off Venezuela's coast
- Missoni is known for its patterned knitwear and signature zigzag stripe
Nearly six months after it went missing off Venezuela's coast, authorities have located the small plane that was carrying Italian fashion boss Vittorio Missoni and five others, the country's Interior Ministry announced Thursday.
The aircraft disappeared on January 4 as it left Los Roques, an archipelago and resort, for the international airport outside Caracas, about 90 miles away. Vittorio Missoni, his wife, and four others -- including a pilot and copilot -- were all on board. All are presumed dead.
Missoni, 58, ran the famed Missoni fashion house with his siblings, Luca and Angela. Neither sibling was on the plane.
Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
The heads of the upscale Dolce&Gabbana brand, Stefano Gabbana, left, and Domenico Dolce, are facing a boycott led by singer Elton John after the Italian designers told a magazine they disagree with in vitro fertilization.
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Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
Mirjana Puhar – Model Mirjana Puhar, who appeared last year on "America's Next Top Model," was found dead February 24 in a drug-related triple homicide in North Carolina, according to police. She was 19 years old.
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Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
B. Smith – Former model and celebrated restaurateur B. Smith was reported missing on Nov. 26, 2014. Thankfully, the 65-year-old, who has Alzheimer's disease, was later found in a Manhattan diner.
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Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
Gianni Versace – Celebrated designer Gianni Versace was killed on July 15, 1997, allegedly by suspected mass-murderer Andrew Cunanan. Versace's sister, Donatella, took over the Versace company three months after he died. Ten years after Versace's death, Italy's fashion capital paid tribute to the slain fashion designer with a glittering ballet performance at Milan's La Scala opera house.
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Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
L'Wren Scott – Famed fashion designer L'Wren Scott was found dead Monday, March 17, 2014 of an apparent suicide in her New York City apartment, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told CNN. Scott's creations were popular with Madonna, Christina Hendricks and other stars as well as the public who patronized her Banana Republic line introduced in late 2013. Scott was 49.
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Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
Michele Savoia – Fashion designer Michele Savoia, left, was found dead in New York's Hudson River on Sunday, February 16. He was 55. The designer built a career dressing himself and celebrity clients in vintage clothing from the 1930s and 40s. He had a flair for the dramatic and had worked on Broadway shows such as "Swing," "Promises, Promises" and "Evita."
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Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
Vittorio Missoni – Missoni director Vittorio Missoni and his wife, Maurizia Castiglioni, had been missing since the airplane they were in disappeared off the coast of Venezuela on January 4, 2013. A bag from the plane was later found on Curacao. With no other signs of the missing flight and passengers, Missoni's siblings showed the company's newest collection in their home town of Milan without him. The downed airplane was located near Key Carenero six months later and recovery efforts launched.
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Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
John Galliano – "I love Hitler," was about the tamest thing John Galliano said in an anti-Semitic rant caught on tape in 2011. As a result, Galliano was fired from fashion giant Christian Dior and found guilty of making public insults based on origin, religious affiliation, race or ethnicity by a French court. In his trial, he said that alcohol and drugs were major factors, which he realized during a stint in rehab after he was fired.
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Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
Alexander McQueen – British designer Alexander McQueen's technical skill as a tailor and boundless imagination at the helm of his own label made him one of his generation's most influential designers, despite earning the monicker "enfant terrible" and his penchant for controversy. Soon after his mother died in February 2010, McQueen took his own life. His former assistant, Sarah Burton, who was named head of McQueen's women's wear line in 2000, took over as creative director following his death. She went on to design Kate Middleton's royal wedding gown as well as sister Pipa's head-turning maid of honor dress.
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Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
Zahia Dehar – French designer and Karl Lagerfeld's muse/protege Zahia Dehar shows collections in Paris, but she's also been embroiled in an underage prostitution scandal. In 2010, she was linked to a sex-for-money case that tarnished the reputation of one of France's most beloved soccer stars, Franck Ribery. (He allegedly paid for sex with her when she was under 18, which is illegal in France.) Another French soccer hero, Karim Benzema, was also alleged to have purchased her services while she was underage.
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Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
Anand Jon Alexander – Fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander was convicted in 2008 of 14 counts including forcible rape and was sentenced to 59 years to life in jail. The Beverly Hills designer had been featured on "America's Next Top Model."
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Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
Isabella Blow – Tatler fashion director Isabella Blow had a knack for discovering British fashion talent, from milliner Philip Treacy and designer Alexander McQueen to models Sophie Dahl and Stella Tennant. She struggled with depression for many years and committed suicide in 2007 while she was stricken with ovarian cancer.
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Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
Naomi Campbell – British supermodel Naomi Campbell was sentenced to a week of community service with the New York City Sanitation Department in 2007 after being convicted for throwing a cell phone at her housekeeper so hard that the woman required stitches. But mopping floors and picking up trash did not stop her from getting a case of air rage a couple of years later, which got her banned from British Airways and another 200 hours of community service and fines ordered by a British court.
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Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
Kate Moss – In 2005, supermodel Kate Moss was in the papers, but not because of the clothes she was wearing. Photos were published in The Daily Mirror showing her apparently snorting cocaine. She was not charged with drug offenses, because of weak prospects for a conviction, but she was swiftly dropped from many advertising contracts.
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Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
Gianfranco Ferre – Italian designer Gianfranco Ferre, a favorite of Hollywood stars Elizabeth Taylor and Julia Roberts, suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2007 and died soon after. Often called the "Frank Lloyd Wright of fashion" (he trained as an architect), Ferre became a fashion designer after college and was known for his voluminous and structured clothing as well as his use of innovative techniques.
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Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
Helmut Newton – Photographer Helmut Newton's career as an international glamor and fashion purveyor built him a legendary reputation. Known for his black and white photos of nude models and celebrities, his photos were often featured in Vogue and Elle magazines. He was killed in 2004 when he crashed his car in Hollywood at the age of 83.
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Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
Winona Ryder – In December 2002, actress and fashion darling Winona Ryder was sentenced to three years probation and 480 hours of community service for shoplifting from Saks Fifth Avenue. She was also ordered to pay more than $10,000 in fines and get drug and psychological counseling.
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Photos: Shocking fashion tragedies and scandals
Ossie Clark – English fashion designer Ossie Clark (pictured here in 1972), spent the 1960s and '70s outfitting rock stars and celebrities like Mick and Bianca Jagger and Elizabeth Taylor. He was found murdered in 1996, stabbed to death by an ex-lover.
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The rise of an Italian fashion empire 04:46
Fashion mogul's mysterious disappearance 02:19
With the help of an American ship with special oceanographic technology, the plane was located off the coast of Key Carenero, within the Los Roques archipelago, according to a family statement published by Italy's ANSA news agency.
"At this time, efforts are underway to recover the wreckage," the families of those aboard the plane said in the statement. "The families would like to thank the Venezuelan and Italian governments for its commitments in finding the wreckage and the family is confident that the investigation into the cause of the incident."
Venezuelan authorities had launched intensive search efforts with boats, helicopters and divers scouring the area for any sign of the missing plane. A bag from the plane washed up on the island of Curacao some 124 miles away from where the aircraft disappeared three weeks after the aircraft went missing.
The fashion house, which boasts such celebrity clients as Katie Holmes, Cameron Diaz and Nicole Richie, is a high-end fashion label known for its patterned knitwear and signature zigzag stripe.
The private company, based in Milan, Italy, has estimated annual sales of between $75 million and $100 million.
The brand, first created in 1953 as a knitwear workshop in Gallarte, Italy, has expanded from apparel to housewares, a fragrance line and a chain of hotels.
Stefano Tonchi, editor-in-chief of W magazine, called the Missonis "one of the most important Italian fashion families," crediting their move to Milan in the late 1960s with helping make the northern Italian city the fashion hub it is today.
Vittorio Missoni and his siblings took over the brand in 1996 with an eye toward marketing to a younger consumer.
The fashion house partnered with Target in 2011 to produce a more budget-friendly collection for the discount retailer, which caused Target's website to crash due to the high demand.
