Italian designer Francesco Smalto, who as one of the stars of the men’s fashion industry clothed princes, heads of state and sporting icons, has died in Morocco aged 87. The ‘creative visionary’ provided men with ‘an allure and unique style’ his fashion house said in a statement. Smalto enjoyed a lengthy and successful career but his image took a tumble in 1995 when he admitted in court that he had provided call girls as well as suits to then Gabonese President, Omar Bongo. For that he was handed a 15-month suspended sentence and a hefty fine. Smalto was born on the southern Italian region of Calabria in 1927 and showed a precocious talent for ‘the cut and the fabric,’ creating his first outfit at the aged of 14 for a friend. But it was in the fashion capital Paris that he dreamed of forging his career and his fashion house went on to provide
