Renowned for her flamboyant fashions and fantastic headwear, it is therefore unsurprising that when the daring designer Marc Jacobs was looking for a source of inspiration for his A/W12 womenswear collection he turned his attentions to Ms. Piaggi...
Eccentric, irreverent and entirely original, style maverick Anna Piaggi has been influencing the fashion world for decades. Working as an Italian writer, she founded and edited the periodical Vanity and regularly contributes to Italian Vogue. Renowned for her flamboyant fashions and fantastic headwear, it is therefore unsurprising that when the daring designer Marc Jacobs was looking for inspiration for his A/W12 womenswear collection he turned his attentions to Ms. Piaggi. Never seen without her signature headwear, Jacobs set wide-brimmed multi-coloured mink hats down his A/W12 runway on Monday. Clashing colours and a juxtaposition of prints and fabrics – ranging from oversized paisleys to floral pencil scribbles, holographic appliques, fur and wool – came in voluminous shaped coats and jackets, tailored skirts and cropped trousers. The paper set, created by Jacobs’ friend and artist Rachel Feinstein, whilst referencing “Marie Antionette’s version of ruins”, had the same cut and paste aesthetic of Piaggi’s collaged Double Pages for Italian Vogue.
"With Anna it's about fun and interest and frivolity. It's her crazy jumble of things. But it's actually not at all crazy and not at all a jumble. It's very disciplined"
Whilst Jacobs whole-heartedly paid homage to Piaggi this season, here we include an image from the S/S03 issue 4 of AnOther Magazine, in which we ran an 8-page spread on the style icon, and a series of quotes from notable fashion figures:
Manolo Blahnik: “She is the only authority on frocks left in the world! Her pages are the reason to read Vogue...Every month is a shock. She knows exactly what is going to happen. She is modern beyond belief.”
Dolce & Gabbana: “We love Anna! She is a true style icon, a woman who has a personal and recognisable style. She is creative, eccentric and unpredictable, with a great knowledge of the history of fashion.”
Stephen Jones: “It doesn't have to be Dior with Anna. She's always worn 1920s shoes with Dolce trousers and a vintage Patou coat and a plastic belt, and a ski pole for a walking stick and crazy blue hair and a funny hat. She's about the possibility of what fashion can be. It's not about chic, or a grand gesture, as it was with Diana Vreeland. With Anna it's about fun and interest and frivolity. It's her crazy jumble of things. But it's actually not at all crazy and not at all a jumble. It's very disciplined.”
Text by Lucia Davies
