How to dress like… Marchesa Luisa Casati

For her limited edition Autumn Winter 2016 collection, Alberta Ferretti draws her inspiration from legendary Marchesa Casati. In the video, shot by Luigi & Iango, Malgosia Bela interprets the legendary style icon dressed in precious and baroque fabrics, in a melancholic Venice filled with fog and mistery among snakes and even a panther. Alberta Ferretti is not the first maison to get inspired by Luisa Casati. Born in Milan in 1881 from a wealthy family of industrialists, following the premature death of her parents, together with her sister she becomes the richest heiress of Italy. And also the most rebel one. The first unconventional thing she did was cutting her hair very short with bangs, anticipating trends by 20 years and finding her signature hairstyle that she will never change. She marries Marquis Camillo Casati Stampa di Soncino but has an affair with Gabriele D’annunzio (which lasts until his death) and she has no problem hiding it. In the early 1900’s she stopped dressing according to the style of the Belle Époque, popular during that time, and begins wearing Venetian lace and dresses with long trains. She enhances her paleness using very light powder, circles her eyes with black and dyes her hair red. Preceding Coco Chanel, she wears black almost every day going against the close Victorian age in which black was exclusively dedicated to funerals and the time of mourning. She was the inspiring muse (and often lover) of many European artists of the time: Cocteau, Marinetti, Man Ray, Balla, Boldini… Her goal was to transform her life into a ‘living artwork’ and we believe she fully succeeded. We selected some clothes and accessories thinking about what Marchesa Luisa Casati would wear nowadays.