Anna Piaggi Journalist and Fashion Stylist of Vogue Italy

      There is nonconformist punk, which rebels against society but not against the musical structures with which it accompanies its supposedly liberating message. There is also punk that applies contempt for norms in its creative process. Punk exists understood as an individual battle against stagnation and hypocrisy. There is also MTV punk, punk as an excuse for the practice of vices, excesses and meaningless situations. There is Anna Piaggi and her unique sense of punk, fashion, art and avant-garde.

      Her fashion philosophy has always been: humor, jokes and games; With these concepts she eliminated all the established rules and thus created her own. For Piaggi, achieving a “perfect look” was the worst thing that could happen to her. Editor of Vogue Italy, her existence in the industry was a sign of evolution and revolution, of intellectuality and simplicity. She was able to see where no one else saw and to create, from a simple vision, what no one else could.

1931 - 2012

     “She was a visionary with a heart of gold. The world is a little less colorful without her” says Donatella Versace. Living in London in the early sixties: "It taught me how to take traditional fashion ideas and turn them on their head. In Italy, we all matched our bags with our shoes, but in London you could wear anything any way you wanted and that would be part of your way of thinking and being! It's one of the reasons why I love London! - Anna Piaggi in 2002.

     The photographer Castaldi, whom she married in 1962, introduced Anna to the world of women's fashion magazines and since then she began to collaborate in them, working as Arianna's editor. She traveled often to London, a city where she visited more than 80 boutiques in a week and where, after visiting the Chelsea Antique Market, she would have obtained most of the 'vintage' pieces from her personal collection. She claimed that she never wore the same clothes twice in public and never went out without makeup.

Anna never stopped writing on her Olivetti Valentine typewriter

     She was a creative consultant for Vogue Italy since 1988 and creator of the "Double Page" articles in which the journalist could talk about anything that she found interesting, unique and worth sharing, from graffiti on the London subway to cooking, His greatest passion was art. Piaggi was admired for her particular style, she was considered a fashion visionary in terms of trends and contemporaneity, she was a fashion critic and advisor, she had an eternal friendship with the designer Karl Lagerfeld and an absolute admirer of Vivianne Westwood.

     Attracting attention for her brightly colored fur stoles, collection of hats and boas, her great predilection for the 'animal print', the 'print on print' trend, the oversaturation of her 'outfits' with the personification of the hand fan. and his cane reflected the free perception of revolutionary fashion of the century. Such was her knowledge and influence in the world of fashion, that Manolo Blahnik nicknamed her “The great authority on the latest fashion dresses in the world.”

"All my clothes are many things that have a life of their own" - Anna Piaggi 2004

   If editor Anna Piaggi had been British instead of simply discovering her lifestyle in London, it would surely be less surprising to everyone. Eclecticism and eccentricity have long been a norm of London fashion, Piaggi improvised outfits as if It was a living collage where he told the story of his past, he used certain elements to which he inadvertently gave life.

      Anna, who died at the age of 81, revived her cultured knowledge of fashion history in magazines and editorials, mixing at all times the past, present and future, the abrasive use of reality with science fiction, she was an editor in the short but important magazine Vanity (1981 - 1983) and wrote for other Italian publications.

       Clothes were not her original interest, although she remembered visiting the city's 'La Rinascente' store as a child, where her father was a manager (he died when she was seven). She had a strict education, was good at languages and worked as a translator at Mondadori publishing houses.

"Fashion for me is fun, interest and frivolity" - Anna Piaggi

   She had become a spectacle and entertainment for all fashion personalities, everyone always had something to say about her appearance, Piaggi always knew what to wear and at all times she was one step ahead of the trends proposed on the European catwalks, her weapon was the reading she knew the true meaning of dressing and transferred it to her wardrobe as if a piece of the world accompanied her, on several occasions she frankly declared that she had never been a photogenic person and that as she aged she adopted "tricks" from Elizabeth I , styling her appearance with a base much lighter than her natural skin color, cartoonish features with the help of blue shadows and marked blush on her cheeks, she has worn short hair in blue and silver waves since 1982.

   "Seeing fashion as a fifth element was one of his greatest passions, lending an authentic sense to the punk scene one of his legacies, investigating and discovering the reasons why we wear clothing and accessories his true passion, the greats of Fashion presents its love through the true personality and vision of clothing, imagination and out-of-the-box accessories are one of the many opportunities that the industry expresses of fashion, an empire made up of endless celebrities, artists and designers who seek the emancipation of man's expression." - @Saintgermainnyc_

In 2006, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London had an exhibition in collaboration with curator Judith Clark, dedicated to Piaggi's inimitable style entitled: “Anna Piaggi Fashion-ology” with some of her 2,865 dresses, 265 pairs of shoes and 932 hats .

"I never go out without makeup nor do I repeat any article of clothing" - Anna Piaggi

"I always work at home and when I do I usually wear a Dolce & Gabbana jogging suit or a Jhon Galliano Gazzette print dress"

XOXO $AINT


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