Anna Piaggi, Legendary Lady of Fashion, Dead at 81

By Jenna Sauers  |  August 7, 2012 | 5:50pm
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Fashion writer and longtime contributor to Vogue Italia Anna Piaggi has died. She was 81. Piaggi was known for her elaborate dress, fondness for tiny hats, sky blue hair, and theatrical makeup. Piaggi’s wardrobe was showcased in a 2006 exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. She was a muse to milliner Stephen Jones, a friend of Karl Lagerfeld, and she claimed never to have publicly worn the same outfit twice:

“I have always liked to mix my look. Every dress tells a story. I am very careful about how I look. I never appear anywhere without make-up on. In fact, I never even go out of my bedroom without make-up. I never wear the same thing twice in public. I love hats and I love little canes and binoculars. It looks like everything is just put together in a haphazard way — but no, it is very carefully thought out. Karl Lagerfeld once held a ball and the theme was Venetian and everyone was dressing as Doges but I decided to go as a fishwife. I balanced a wicker basket on my head filled with seaweed and crabs and I hung two pigeons I’d bought from the butcher round my neck but at midnight they started to bleed so I had to leave like Cinderella!”

[WWD]
Franca Sozzani Tweeted, “23 years of working together, thousands of D.P. carried out together. I will always remember you, Anna.” (“D.P.” or doppie pagine is Italian for double-page spread, the feature for which Piaggi was best known.) [@FrancaSozzani]
Dita Von Teese Tweeted, “So sad to hear that Anna Piaggi, one of my last icons of beauty & fashion has passed. She was the height of glamorous eccentricity.” [@DitaVonTeese]

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