The Marchesa. The muse.




"Women of the world today all dress alike. They are like so many loaves of bread. To be beautiful one must be unhurried. Personality is needed. There is too much sameness. The world seems to have only a desire for more of this sameness. To be different is to be alone."
- The Marchesa Luisa Casati
Luisa Casati [1881-1957] had nude male servants gilded with gold. Wax mannequins sat, lifeless, at her dinner table. She wore live snakes as jewellery, & was infamous for her late-night walks, during which she would walk cheetahs on diamond-studded leashes, while completely naked beneath her furs.

When both her wealthy parents died, Luisa (aged 15) & her sister were suddenly the wealthiest women in Italy. Luisa’s natural propensity for the arts & fascination with surrounding herself with beautiful, unusual things became a major part of her personality. She regularly shocked the aristocracy with her bizarre garb & enthrallment with the macabre.

She was obsessed with her own image & commissioned thousands of artists to paint, sculpt & photograph her.
However, Luisa’s passion for clothing, jewels & extravagant lifestyle found her with a personal debt of $25 million by the time she was 49 years old. After all her personal possessions had been auctioned off, she fled to London where she eventually died. It is said that she was seen digging around in bins for feathers to put in her hair.
Rumor has it that among the bidders was Coco Chanel. Amused me how she have been Karl Lagafeld inspiration so many times. 




Karl Lagerfeld held Chanel's 2010 Resort collection in Venice, home to the Marchesa for a large part of her life and she clearly influenced the entire collection.
There's others designer and art directors crazy about her.
She obviously a huge inspiration for Jhon Galliano
Alexander Mcqueen F/W08
Harpers Bazar Editorial March 2009 issue




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