Anna Maria Piaggi (22 March 1931 – 7 August 2012) was an Italian

fashion writer Fashion journalism is a component of fashion media, with a focus on writing and photojournalism. Fashion journalists write about fashion events, trends and have to cultivate and maintain a relationship with stylists and designers. A fashion journ ...

. She was known for her bright blue hair, liberal use of make-up, and her sense of style that mixed vintage and contemporary fashion.

Career

Piaggi was born in Milan on 22 March 1931.Diana Formaggio, Francesco Marraro (1987)
''Il "chi è" del giornalismo italiano: repertorio ragionato ad uso degli uffici stampa''
Roma: Al. Ver. editrice. Accessed May 2014. She worked as a translator for an Italian publishing company

Mondadori Arnoldo Mondadori Editore () is the biggest publishing company in Italy. History The company was founded in 1907 in Ostiglia by 18-year-old Arnoldo Mondadori who began his publishing career with the publication of the magazine ''Luce!''. In ...

, then wrote for fashion magazines such as the Italian edition of ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

'' and, in the 1980s, the avant-garde magazine ''

Vanity Vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others. Prior to the 14th century it did not have such narcissistic undertones, and merely meant ''futility''. The related term vainglory is now often seen as an archaic ...

''. From 1988 she designed double page spreads in the Italian ''Vogue'', where her artistic flair was given free expression in a montage of images and text, with layout by

Luca Stoppini The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the most recent population from which all organisms now living on Earth share common descent—the most recent common ancestor of all current life on Earth. This includes all cellular organisms; th ...

.. Victoria and Albert Museum. Archived 11 July 2007. These networks of images and ideas built upon Piaggi's awareness of fashion and art history to provide an open-ended attempt at understanding fashion designers' influences. She used a bright red

Olivetti Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other such business products as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, the company has been pa ...

"Valentina" manual typewriter designed by

Ettore Sottsass Ettore Sottsass (Innsbruck, Austria 14 September 1917 – Milan, Italy 31 December 2007) was a 20th century Italian architect, noted for also designing furniture, jewellery, glass, lighting, home and office wares, as well as numerous buildings an ...

in 1969.. Victoria and Albert Museum. Archived 30 June 2007. She dressed in an exuberant, unique and eclectic way. Piaggi appeared in the documentary '' Bill Cunningham New York'' about ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' fashion and social photographer Bill Cunningham.

Personal life

Piaggi married the photographer

Alfa Castaldi Alfa Castaldi (19 December 1926 – 17 December 1995) was an Italian photographer. Career He began his photographic career in 1954, depicting the social life of his native Milan for Italian magazines, moving into fashion photography in the 196 ...

in 1962 in New York. Castaldi died in 1995. Piaggi died in Milan on 7 August 2012.

Books

* (with Karl Lagerfeld) ''Karl Lagerfeld: A Fashion Journal''.

Thames and Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...

, 1986. * (with Gianni Brera) ''Africa di Missoni per Italia 90''. Edizioni Electa, 1990. * ''Anna Piaggi's Fashion Algebra''. Thames and Hudson, 1998. * ''Doppie pagine di Anna Piaggi in Vogue''. Leonardo Arte, 1998. * (with Anna Wintour, Michael Roberts, André Leon Talley and Manolo Blahnik) ''Manolo Blahnik Drawings''. Thames and Hudson, 2003.

Career

Personal life

Books

References

Further reading