June 1, 2011 |
FROM THE VOLT (WINTER 2010)
Anna Piaggi is a fashion icon, whatever that means, but she is also a widely-read fashion journalist, and a muse and inspiration to various fashion heavyweights. Anna herself was traveling and could not be reached as 10 went to press. But the silver-tongued editors persuaded Anna’s favorite milliner, Stephen Jones, to say a few words by telephone from London about this outrageous Italian, this living museum of all that’s fabulous and frivolous and utterly serious about fashion. At seven a.m. on a recent September morning, I put on my Suzy Menkes mask and dialed the number of Stephen’s London establishment. The dulcet tones of the great milliner came over the airwaves, reassuring as Vera Lynn in an air raid.
GOOD MORNING STEPHEN! WE LOVE YOUR HATS, BUT TODAY WE ARE GOING TO GRILL YOU ABOUT MISS ANNA PIAGGI. ARE YOU WILLING TO UNLOAD SOME INTIMATE DETAILS ABOUT YOUR MUSE?
“Why certainly. I adore Anna, and I will be happy to tell you whatever you need to know.”
HOW DID YOU TWO ORIGINALLY MEET?
“It was way back in the mists of time, London in the late ‘60s. Anna was a friend of Derek Jarman, Andew Logan, Brian Eno, and especially Vern Lambert, the fashion historian who introduced her to the joys of Portobello and Bermondsey market. Vern and Anna found the most fabulous stuff, Poirets and Balenciagas, I think once a cape that had belonged to Sarah Bernhardt, in the markets. That’s when she really began to dress up. I first met Anna when she came to England and did a story on Manolo Blahnik and myself. It was shot at the Portobello Hotel, and the whole thing from beginning to end, just seemed so fantastically glamorous. And looking back, it really was! Everyone knew who Anna was, even then.”
WHERE DO THESE SINGULAR CREATURES SPRING FROM? HOW DO THEY DEVELOP SUCH A UNIQUE LOOK?
“Anna was always fascinated with dressing up, completely focused on clothes. I did a talk with her at the Louvre a few years ago and then we were going to go to dinner and she said, ‘Well now I have to go to my hotel and change’, and I said but why? And she replied ‘Well I just have to wear some clothes that have more depth!’ So she is always very conscious of what she is wearing, and how she is wearing it. She will assume the character of those clothes.”
THERE IS SUCH A FINE LINE BETWEEN HER ECCENTRIC STYLE AND ORDINARY MADNESS, IN A WAY. HOW DOES ANNA TRANSCEND THAT, TO PRESENT HERSELF TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC IN A WAY THAT THEY DON’T SIMPLY ASSUME THEY ARE OBSERVING A MAD PERSON?
“I think mainly by the strength of her conviction, by her absolute sense of her own style. The fact that she is 22, not 21, you know you can get away with more. One becomes more bloody-minded, and also, I think the whole enterprise entertains her, it’s an entertainment for herself and for others.”
SHE HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS A FASHION BAROMETER. DO YOU THINK PEOPLE TAKE FASHION CUES FROM HER OUTFITS? DO THEY PERHAPS HAVE AN INFLUENCE THE WAY THOM BROWNE’S EXAGGERATED SUITS HAD AN INFLUENCE ON THE SILHOUETTE IN MENSWEAR?
We’ll pass over that Thom Browne comparison, but yes I do think she is an influence. I went to the opening of a little shop in Shoreditch last night and all the twenty year olds there seemed to have that element of craziness that might well have come from Anna. That lovely frivolity.
FRIVOLOUSNESS SEEMS ALMOST TO BE TREATED WITH GREAT SERIOUSNESS IN THE FASHION WORLD.
Frivolity is very serious. It’s very necessary. It’s a major component of fashion of course. In World War Two the only items that weren’t rationed for women were lipstick and hats, because the government knew that they needed some form of frivolity, some hint of gaiety, to get through the war.
‘MUSE’ IS AN OVERWORKED WORD, BUT HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THAT OCCUPATION?
Well, for me a muse as someone whom I respect and admire, someone who influences me, and with whom I have a personal relationship, that part is a must. Take Amanda Harlech, she’s often been described as John Galliano’s muse, and indeed she was, but a great part of their collaboration was that they got on together famously, they had a good laugh together. That’s the basis of my relationship with Anna.
HOW DOES A COLLABORATION GENERALLY WORK BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU?
Usually I’ll get a call from Anna saying, ‘Stephen darling, I have to launch a ship in India, in two days time, and I will need a hat!’ Or there will be a long meandering conversation and at the end of it I will say, “Well Anna, do you need a hat?” But we do tend to think alike. When she had her show at the V&A, we were both interviewed separately by the same newspaper, and we came up with identical answers to most of the questions. At the same time, although we are great friends and get on really well, I occasionally get the feeling that if I didn’t make hats, we wouldn’t be such good friends! [laughter].
THAT’S THE PREROGATIVE OF THE MUSE I SUPPOSE. SHE IS ALSO AMUSED BY MANOLO BLAHNIK AND KARL LAGERFELD. IS THAT AN OBLIQUE MODE OF ENDORSEMENT, TO HAVE HER WEAR A DESIGNER’S CLOTHES?
Well Manolo does make shoes for her, but it’s because she inspires him. ‘Modern beyond belief’, he called her. Karl too was entranced and inspired. But her range is so wide, she encompasses so much more than a few specific designers. Anna buys plenty of her own clothes when she sees something she likes. She will often come in the shop and buy a hat or two. When I make them specifically I usually fax her some line drawings, working on her suggestions. She knows how to work the fax machine. Of course she has her own ideas, ‘How about a little veil?” she’ll say, and I say “No, Anna,” and we go back and forth. But it is really an education for me to watch the way she adjusts a hat, the way she manipulates it to fit her head –she will occasionally even put it on backwards and say ‘Oh that’s much better!’ and sometimes, on her, it is!
WHOM DO YOU REGARD AS HER KINDRED SPIRITS? ISABELLA BLOW? DIANA VREELAND?
SJ: Well Diana Vreeland certainly, because like Anna she was a journalist, not just a fashion icon. And Anna definitely sees herself as a working journalist. And she does the famous ‘double pages’, ‘doppie pagine’ for Vogue Italia in every issue, and she takes that work very seriously. And when she’s working she’s in the nurse’s uniform, with the white shoes and the stethoscope, probably a thermometer in her top pocket of her smock. But she loves words, and writing.
FASHION SPEAKS ITS OWN LANGUAGE. ANNA TOLD THE DESIGNER RICCARDO TICCI THAT HER FAVORITE QUOTE OF HIS, DESCRIBING HIS COLLECTION, WAS ‘MAORI FETISH BABY DOLL.’ SOUNDS LIKE A HAIKU TRANSLATED FROM THE ESKIMO THAT ONLY A FASHION PERSON WOULD UNDERSTAND.
Well for me that conjures up a lot of different visual images. In the closed world of fashion, a phrase like that seems completely logical. Though I’m sure the public is completely intrigued as well. In Anna’s world, there is a reason for everything, there is an absolute logic in operation. That’s why she called her book Fashion Algebra. Do the math!
THIS THIRTEEN YEAR-OLD AMERICAN FASHION BLOGGER TAVI, DO YOU THINK SHE’S A POTENTIAL PIAGGI?
SJ: She might well be, She’s actually a very good writer. And she does create some interesting outfits. She even dyed her hair silver recently, in homage to Anna. She’s a sort of fashion prodigy. We’re used to design prodigies, like Galliano or McQueen, but Tavi is more like a journalistic prodigy, which I suppose is why she is getting flown around the world by major fashion people, and getting a bit of spite from more established journalists.
WOULD YOU DESCRIBE ANNA AS A KIND OF HISTORIAN, IN THE WAY SHE PUTS THE DIFFERENT ELEMENTS TOGETHER?
Well, her knowledge of fashion is epic in scope, and certainly she is extremely well read, aware of what’s happening in the world, so I’m sure you can find lots of cultural and political references in her pages and in her outfits. The sources of her inspiration are endless, really. Anna is surreal, but she is also completely real, and that’s why people appreciate her so much.
by Max Blagg
