Michele Malenotti dead at 42: Ex Belstaff owner and motorcycle brand director dies in motor scooter accident

Michele Malenotti, former Creative Director of Belstaff and managing director of motorcycle and clothing brand Matchless has died in a motor scooter accident at the age of 42.

Women’s Wear Daily reported that “According to press and police reports, Malenotti was returning home at 3 a.m. on Saturday after a game of padel with friends when he lost control of the vehicle in a roundabout between Venice and Treviso.

Michele Malenotti was part of the Malenotti brand and he was passionate about motorcycles, a love that he inherited from his father Franco Malenotti. The family owned Matchless, a motorcycle and clothing brand that is renowned for its motorcycle jackets, worn by the likes of supermodels Kate Moss and Cara Delevingne as well as Hollywood actors Daniel Craig and Samuel L .Jackson 

Malenotti previously owned the fashion label Belstaff which was bought by Labelux in a reported $161m transaction in 2011. At the time Reinhard Mieck, chief executive of the group said that “Belstaff is a unique asset with great heritage, a strong following and a very promising future as a major international luxury brand.”

When the Malenotti family owned Belstaff, their jackets were worn by Hollywood stars in huge blockbuster films, one example is Tom Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible. When it comes to Matchless London, they worked with Arnold Schwarzenegger after collaborating with him on The Terminator.

In 2015, Matchless London launched a Star Wars capsule collection that consisted of sixteen pieces that was inspired by the characters Darth Vader, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. 

At the time, Michele Malenotti said “We wanted the Star Wars inspired jacket designs to represent the individuality of each character, offering fans of Star Wars the ultimate fashion accessory with this Matchless  collection.”