Roberto Cavalli was born in Florence on the 15th November, 1940. He was raised in a surrounding with strong artistic traditions: his grandfather was a Florentine painter from the "Macchiaiolo" movement, whose works can still be seen at the Uffizi Museum.

Following in this tradition, Roberto attended the Academy of Art. Capricious, eclectic and original from the beginning, he began his career when he was very young, while still a student, inventing the first of his revolutionary creations: a process of printing on light-weight leather which he was able to do thanks to his meticulous research of fabrics and continual experimenting with new technologies.

In his printing-house - something half way between a craftsman's workshop and an artist's studio - he concentrated his studies on the links between art, fashion and painting, eventually patenting the revolutionary process of printing on leather that he had evolved.