A day after issuing a missing person alert for fashion designer Michele Savoia, police found the 55-year-old's body in the Hudson River. His body was found near Chelsea Piers, near where his boat was docked.
Savoia was last seen at 3:54 a.m. on Thursday, February 13, leaving 10th Avenue nightclub Marquee. His friends became worried when he missed his Valentine's Day plans with his girlfriend.
Now police suspect that he slipped into the water while drunk. The Daily News reports that he "was still wearing the raccoon coat he was last seen alive in."
His girlfriend Juli Berg told the Post, "I’m just so glad they found the body. Not knowing was the worst." She said she tried contacting him on Thursday morning, but his phones weren't working (a cellphone was found with Savoia), "He never made it to the boat. The weather was really bad that night. When you walk down onto the pier, there is a metal ramp. I think that’s where he fell." She added, "I knew if [his raccoon coat] got wet it would be like a lead weight."
Savoia's boat (WCBS 2)
Savoia lived on a 1958 ChrisCraft boat—his body was found under another boat about 20 feet away—which he financed by pawning his beloved motorcycle. His best friend Felix Rodriguez said, "He was a talented man. Everyone knew him — he was a crazy s.o.b. If I had to describe Michele Savoia in any way, it would be a red Corvette driving 150 miles down the highway without a driver."
According to the NY Times, "Mr. Savoia designed costumes for Broadway shows like 'Swing,' 'Promises, Promises' and 'Evita,' starring Ricky Martin. Though not widely known in the fashion world, he was something of a celebrity among vintage-clothing aficionados who, like him, thought of modern designs as lacking a certain swagger." He also designed clothes for Robert DeNiro, Chris Noth and Mickey Rourke.
He told Fashion Week Daily in 2011, "A lot of designers are putting out looks that have the message that it's okay not to dress anymore. There are very few restaurants in New York with a strict dress code... New York is scared to enforce stylish dress nowadays. Grown men with bellies want to fit into these skinny pants. That's not menswear. The fifties and sixties are fine—Sinatra, Dean Martin, boom, boom, boom. But that's as skinny and as low as a pant should be. I don't like the hipster look. A hipster is a kid who goes into a vintage store, buys a blazer two sizes too small, and doesn't even know that it's not a men's blazer."
