We journalists were astonished: who was that striking young man — fiery yet cultivated, learned, charming, and eloquent — explaining with such authority the logic and meaning behind this emerging style, as if he had always been part of the nascent world of Italian prêt-à-porter, still searching for its roots? 
Over the years, I have followed Vittorio with admiration (a little less so during his more “goatish” outbursts or uncontrollable rants on live television), but always with attention and curiosity.
I began working with him in 2006, when Milan’s then-mayor, Letizia Moratti, asked me to coordinate the city’s cultural and creative departments. We clashed over the Cow Parade, which I curated in 2007 — an event he didn’t much appreciate — when one hundred resin cows, designed and decorated by artists and designers I had selected, filled Milan’s streets with color, joy, and “visual culture,” just as they had done in other world capitals. In the years that followed, it was easier to win his approval for some of the best street artists — back when they were still seen as borderline types, even delinquents deserving fines and trials, without distinguishing between vandals and young creatives expressing themselves wherever they could, dreaming of Berlin.        He came often to Superstudio for exhibitions at MyOwnGallery, where I struggled to contain his charming attentions toward all my prettiest assistants.
Seeing him today — prematurely weighed down by the hardships of life and entangled in legal and family disputes that have affected his health and energy — fills me with deep sadness. It also moves me to stand by him once again, publicly and with affection. One cannot forget his insight, his books, his stories, his battles, his extraordinary contribution to helping us understand the secrets of art and our cultural history. I hope to see again the Vittorio we all knew — passionate, excessive, brilliant — the one that his wonderful Sabrina has always known how to guide, and always will. Best wishes, Vittorio — soon to be a groom.