Lecture: Anna Piaggi, Creativity and Passion in Fashion and Beyond
November 20, 2018
At a special lecture at Beckmans College of Design, Anna Piaggi, will be presented to us by Stefano Piaggi, nephew and President of Association Cultural Anna Piaggi.
50 Years of International Fashion History
Anna Piaggi lived through 50 years of international fashion history, influencing and dictating trends, experimenting, searching and drawing inspiration and references for her extraordinary story from a plethora of fields: from art and design, cooking and cinema, theatre and botany... always with her unique style, characterized by elaborate words games, linguistic divertissement, cryptic synthesis. Her innate aesthetic sensibility, together with a deep culture of the image, allowed her to create visions and descriptions absolutely original and previsional.
She begins her career as translator for Mondadori, then she collaborates with Epoca and Panorama magazines. From 1961 to 1968 she is the fashion editor for Arianna magazine, on whose pages, along with her husband Alfa Castaldi, and her friend Anna Riva, she creates beautiful and modern fashion editorials showing her great talent and creative genius. From the late 60s she begins contributing for Vogue Italia, creating ravishing fashion editorials; from 1974 to 1979 she authors the column 'Box' with illustrations by Karl Lagerfeld. A close friendship with the German designer, who portrayed her in many drawings, culminated in the publication of the book "Anna-chronique", a fashion visual diary dedicated to her unique way of wearing.
The V&A dedicated exhibition to her
From 1988 until 2012, when she died, she has been writing a column entitled "Doppie Pagine di Anna Piaggi" for Vogue Italia, followed every month by her numerous and devoted admirers around the world. In 1999, her second book, an edited collection of a decade of "Doppie Pagine" articles, called "Fashion Algebra", is published. In 2006 Victoria & Albert Museum in London dedicated to her the exhibition "Fashion-ology", in 2013 the Associazione Culturale Anna Piaggi, in collaboration with Municipality of Milan, organized "Hat-ology, Anna Piaggi and her hats" exhibition.
About the Lecture
During the lecture, presented by Stefano Piaggi, President of Associazione Culturale Anna Piaggi, the extraordinary journalistic career of Anna Piaggi will be described, finding out how her brilliant creativity and the complexity of her cultural references have been a lifeblood for designers, photographers, illustrators and fashion passionates. This lecture has been already hosted at several University and Fashion Schools in Italy, Europe and in October 2018 for the first time in U.S.A.
About Stefano Piaggi
Stefano Piaggi, nephew of Anna, is managing the Associazione Culturale Anna Piaggi since 2013, year of its establishment, his professional background is in the graphic design, graduate in Architecture at Politecnico di Milano, for 30 years entrepreneur and partner at Studio Piaggi, he spent also some years in an Italian textile Company, managing communication and product development.
He collaborated with Anna Piaggi, together with his father Alberto, at projects like "Aristocratic artisans, interactive journey into Italian fashion" displayed in New York in 2000 and "Lifeball" in Vienna in 2003 for Missoni, during their fashion show. For the Associazione Culturale Anna Piaggi he managed the general organization of "Hat-ology, Anna Piaggi and her hats" exhibition, Milan, September 2013, he designed the logo and communication items.
Since 2015 he presents at Fashion Schools and Universities the lecture "Anna Piaggi, creativity and passion in fashion and beyond fashion". In 2016 he curated the fashion room at Museo del Gioiello di Vicenza with a selection of fashion jewels from A.P. collection, together with a thematic storytelling. He manages the collection of clothes, hats and fashion accessories, providing advice for curators and lending pieces from the collection to fashion exhibitions.
Time, place & RSVP
The lecture is open to the public but there are a limited number of seats and you therefore need to RSVP by November 16th.
Time: Tuesday, November 20th at 4:15 p.m.
Location: Auditorium, Beckmans College of Design, Brahegatan 10
To reserve one of the limited number of seats for this lecture, please RSVP here. If successful, you will be notified and sent a personal response.
