#marquise casati

It’s said this portrait of me (L), was the inspiration for Man Ray’s 1922 portrait of Marquise Casati ®. Curators and art historians have debated the charge for decades. Both can be viewed at the Tate Modern, London. You’ve got to call ahead to see mine though, rarely is it exhibited to the public - the insurance alone would cripple the museum.

French Headdress made of mounted Bird of Paradise feathers, 1910s.

The design of this ornament is copied from one worn by the Marchesa Luisa Casati, a notorious eccentric and flamboyant dresser. 

Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

mote-historie:

John Galliano for Christian Dior, Haute couture, Spring Summer Collection, 1998.

Tribute to Marchesa Luisa Casati.

The Palais Garnier.

John GallianoforChristian Dior, Haute Couture, Spring Summer Collection, 1998.

Tribute to Marchesa Luisa Casati.

Opera Garnier, Paris.

Sarah Lipska,Masque de femme,Marchesa Luisa Casati, 1936-1937.

Centre Pompidou, RMN Grand Palais, Paris, France.

The Mysterious Sex Appeal of Gabriele D'Annunzio - Rogues Gallery Online.

Multi talented, charismatic and a bit of a Fascist, Gabriele D'Annunzio bedded over 1000 women (Marchesa Luisa Casati, Ida Rubinstein, Liane de Pougy, Isadora Duncan, Eleonora Duse, Luisa Baccara, Nathalie de Goloubeff, Franca Florio). His sensual secrets will amaze you.

Marchesa Luisa Casati had a long term affair with the author Gabriele D'Annunzio, who is said to have based on her the character of Isabella Inghirami in Forse che si forse che no (Maybe yes, maybe no) (1910).

Tom Ford and models, Spring Summer Collection 2011, Photo by Steven Meisel, Vogue, December, 2010.

To celebrate Tom Ford’s return to womenswear design after his six year absence, Vogue offered its readers a preview of the designer’s Spring 2011 collection photographed by Steven Meisel. Meisel’s image features Mr. Ford positioned amongst his designs in a fashion similar to Milton Greene’s portrait in 1960.

In homage to designer Norman Norell proudly standing amongst his muses: models dressed in his signature sequined sheath gowns along with the Marchesa Luisa Casati, portrayed in Kees van Dongen’s 1921 painting, The Quai, Venice. Photo by Milton Greene, Life Magazine, September, 1960.

DesignerNorman Norell proudly standing amongst his muses: models dressed in his signature sequined sheath gowns along with the Marchesa Luisa Casati, portrayed in Kees van Dongen’s 1921 painting, The Quai, Venice. Photo by Milton Greene, Life Magazine, September, 1960.

Norman Norell owned the portait of the eccentric Marchesa Luisa Casati (the same Marchesa who inspired the label Marchesa by Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig) and designed his Fall 1960 collection in her honor.

Georgina ChapmanasMarchesa Luisa Casati, Marchesa’s Moment, Harper’s Bazaar, Photo by Peter Lindbergh, March 2009.   

In homage to Marchesa Luisa Casati dressed as Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Sissi) in a Photo by Man Ray in 1927.                                          

Giacomo Balla,Marchesa Luisa Casati with eyes of Mica and the wooden heart at 2nd Futurist art exhibition in Rome, IL MONDO Cover, March 1919.

©contrasto

Jan Styka,Marchesa Luisa Casati, Capri, 1919-1920.

Collection of Dr. & Mrs R. Winter, New York. 

Marchesa Luisa Casati as Empress Theodora wear a crown formed of eagles, 1905.

On March 2, 1905, Tryphosa Bates Batchellerwrites:

It was supposed to be a ball characterized by the fancy dressing of the head and hair, but, as a matter of fact, most of the women came in elaborate and beautiful costumes. Far and away the most elegant and most beautiful costume was worn by the Marchesa Camillo Casati, of the famous Casati family of Milan. She was dressed as the Empress Theodora, in a perfect fitting princesse gown of cloth of silver heavily embroidered in gold. The costume was an exact reproduction of one worn in Paris by Sarah Bernhardt a short time ago. The Marchesa wore on her head a crown formed of eagles, and had some of her diamonds set up in a large diamond eagle, which was her only corsage ornament. Two or three ropes of her wonderful and famous pearls hung loosely about her beautiful neck, and altogether she was quite the most stunning persona at the ball. She is a handsome woman, tall and slight, with a beautiful figure and splendid carriage. Her hair is a light chestnut color, and she is always pale, though her paleness is of that attractive sort that does not indicate ill-health. She is said to be one of the best dressed women in Rome on all occasion.

John GallianoforChristian Dior, Maria-Luisa (dite (called) Core) ball gown, Haute Couture, Spring Summer Collection, 1998. 

Tribute to Marchesa Luisa Casati.

Exhibition at Chatsworth House, 25 March 2017 - 22 October 2017. 

“The Marchesa Casati, at sunset, reclining in her gondola, wrapped in tiger skins and fondling her favorite leopard, is a sight to be seen only in Venice.” - Baron Adolph de Meyer

Sarah Lipska, Wood Bust Sculpture of Marchesa Luisa Casati, 1930. 

Musées de Poitiers.

Liza Minelli, A Matter of Time, 1976.

Costumes by Andretta Ferrero.

Characters based on Marchesa Luisa Casati.

A Matter of Time is a 1976 American-Italian musical fantasy film starring Liza Minnelli and Ingrid Bergman, directed by Vincente Minnelli. The screenplay by John Gay is based on the novel The Film of Memory by Maurice Druon. The fictional story is based loosely on the real life exploits of the infamous Italian eccentric, the Marchesa Luisa Casati, whom Druon knew during her declining years in London while he was stationed there during World War II. The film marked the first screen appearance for Isabella Rossellini, the last for Charles Boyer, and it proved to be Vincente Minnelli’s final project. (x)

Karl LagerfeldforChanel resort collection, 2010.

Inspired by Marchesa Luisa Casati.

The show was held in Venice, a place which was home to Casati for a large part of her life. The models hair and makeup was clearly inspired by her signature look. 

Joseph Paget-Fredericks, Marchesa Luisa Casati - Fête à Versailles (Party at Versailles), furious costume, 1927.

The Bancroft Library, Berkeley, California.

One hundred years ago this month, the renown Welsh artist Augustus John met the Marchesa Luisa Casati at a party in Paris. He described the meeting in his autobiography: “A lady of unusual distinction had entered. Her bearing, personality, and peculiar elegance seemed to throw the rest of the company into the shade….She moved about the ballroom with supreme ease, while looking about her with an expression of slightly malicious amusement. Our eyes met. Before leaving I obtained an introduction; it was the Marchesa Casati.” They quickly became lovers, and then life-long friends. John painted the Marchesa twice that spring; below is the first of the portraits. (x)

Marchesa Luisa Casati. 

John GallianoforChristian Dior, Haute Couture, Spring Summer Collection, 1998. 

Model: Debbie Deitering.

Tribute to Marchesa Luisa Casati.

Not long after his arrival at Christian Dior, JohnGalliano invited us all to Paris’s Opera Garnier, where he staged what was probably his most lavish spectacle ever for the house on its grand marble steps. With the Marchesa Luisa Casati for a muse, the clothes looked straight out of an early 20th-century salon or ball. There were backless velvet gowns in Art Nouveau prints, opera coats with deep mink trim, lace sheaths and skirtsuits, and rose-strewn picture hats. And for the finale? A shower of pastel-colored tissue-paper confetti cut into the shape of tiny butterflies. Pure magic. (x)