The Photographs of Alfa Castaldi

Last August, the fashion industry said farewell to one of its most remarkable visionaries, the inimitable Anna Piaggi. But while her presence continues to be mourned, her legacy remains due cause for celebration. To coincide with Milan fashion week, 10 Corso Como – Carla Sozzani’s celebrated hub of art and fashion – launched a series of events in her honour. This includes Anna Piaggi and Chloé Edition Anniversaire, an exhibit of Piaggi-inspired garments, sketches and photographs from Vogue Italia’s archives, on display in the brand’s pop-up store. While in the Galleria Carla Sozzani, a retrospective of the work of Piaggi’s beloved husband, the late photographer, Alfa Castaldi, is also in progress.

"Anna Piaggi encouraged Castaldi to turn his hand to fashion photography as a new means of exploring his aesthetic vision"

Piaggi and Castaldi met at The Mondadori Group – where he worked as a photographer, she as a translator ­– and the pair were married in 1962. Piaggi encouraged Castaldi to turn his hand to fashion photography as a new means of exploring his aesthetic vision, and before long he was shooting regularly for Vogue Italia, where Piaggi had recently embarked upon her longstanding career as a feature writer. Castaldi’s widely praised photographs offer fascinating and rare insight into the industry at large, documenting not only the clothing, but also the designers and key figures with whom Piaggi and he had formed close friendships – his candid portraiture depicts Karl Lagerfeld, Ottavio and Rosita Missoni, Giorgio Armani and the Fendi sisters. But his most telling portraits are those of Piaggi herself, which wonderfully embody her great style and eccentricity, as seen through the lens of her greatest supporter and most trusted of companions.

Alfa Castaldi runs at 10 Corso Como until March 30.

Text by Daisy Woodward