Fashion designer

Born: August 4, 1943;

Died: May 26, 2017

LAURA Biagiotti, who has died aged 73, was an Italian fashion designer who conquered global markets with her soft, loose women's clothes and luxurious knits - designs which won her the nickname Queen of Cashmere.

Biagiotti began designing women's clothes in the 1960s and by the 1980s was making her mark. In 1988, she became the first Italian designer to stage a fashion show in China, presenting dresses and blouses in silk and cashmere. Several years later she was the first to have a show inside the Kremlin walls in Moscow.

Later, she expanded into men's clothing as well, and created a plus-size women's line, Laura Piu, and the Biagiotti Junior line for children.

Her company also produced sunglasses and perfumes, including the popular Roma fragrance, which was named after Biagiotti's home city.

Born on August 4 1943 in Rome to a journalist father and dressmaker mother, Biagiotti had planned to become an archaeologist but abandoned her studies at La Sapienza University in Rome to help her mother run her dressmaking business, whose clients included Bette Davis and Ingrid Bergman.

In those early years, Biagiotti travelled frequently to the United States to learn business and technology. After collaborating with such famous fashion houses as Shubert and Capucci, she opened her own shop and presented her first collection in Florence in 1972.

By the mid 1990s, her business had expanded to 30 countries; she also sold licences for a range of accessories and branched out into interior decoration and menswear. In 1996, she sacked the supermodel Naomi Campbell from a show when she turned up two hours late.

She was always deeply proud of her native Italy, and for years wore a cashmere shawl woven in the red, white and green colours of the nation's flag.

"I'm convinced that the true gold mine in our country is the Made in Italy label," she said in 2011.

Biagiotti lived in a 14th century castle on a hilltop outside Rome that she had restored over four years, and which was the headquarters for her business as well as a showcase for her large collection of art. Most of her staff worked at the castle; it was also home to the many dogs which Biagiotti rescued.

Speaking about her career in 1987, Biagiotti said she was utterly committed to fashion. "Being a fashion designer is like taking vows," she said. "It becomes your religion for life."

Biagiotti was also known for philanthropic work in her native city of Rome - she paid for the restoration of the fountains in Piazza Farnese.

She suffered a heart attack at her estate outside Rome on Wednesday evening. Doctors were able to resuscitate her but by then serious brain damage had occurred.

Her daughter, Lavinia Biagiotti, announced her mother's death on Friday, conveying the news with a Biblical passage: "In the house of my father there are many places. If not, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you."

Biagiotti's husband, Gianni Cigna, died of leukaemia in 1996.

She is survived by her daughter Lavinia, who had also been her fashion partner.