Infinite Variety: The Life & Legend of the Marchesa Casati - The Definitive Edition - Softcover

Scot D. Ryersson; Michael Orlando Yaccarino

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816645205 ISBN 13: 9780816645206

Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2004

Synopsis

For the first three decades of the twentieth century, the Marchesa Casati astounded Europe: nude servants gilded in gold leaf attended her; bizarre wax mannequins sat as guests at her dining table; and she was infamous for her evening strolls, naked beneath her furs, parading cheetahs on diamond-studded leashes. Artists painted, sculpted, and photographed her; poets praised her strange beauty. Among them were Gabriele D’Annunzio, Man Ray, Jean Cocteau, Cecil Beaton, and American writers Tennessee Williams, Jack Kerouac, and Ezra Pound. Couturiers Fortuny, Poiret, and Erté dressed her. Some became lovers, others awestruck admirers, but all were influenced by this extraordinary muse. The extravagance ended in 1930 when Casati was more than twenty-five million dollars in debt. Fleeing to London, she spent her final flamboyant years there until her death in 1957. Now nearly a half-century later, Casati’s fashion legacy continues to inspire such designers as John Galliano, Karl Lagerfeld, and Tom Ford. Fully authorized and accurate, this is the fantastic story of the Marchesa Luisa Casati.Scot D. Ryersson is an award-winning freelance writer, illustrator, and graphic designer. He lives in New Jersey.Michael Orlando Yaccarino is a freelance writer specializing in international genre film, fashion, music, and unconventional historical figures. He lives in New Jersey.

About this title

Review

"The fabulous Marchesa Casati was the ultimate Gothic heroine, a bizarre and beautiful figure." - "Sunday Telegraph"

"Fascinating . . . with or without her cheetahs, the Marchesa Casati's circus of the self makes her a natural for the new millennium."--Vanity Fair

"A meticulously researched biography, Infinite Variety is as much art history as chronicle of personal obsession."--New York Times

"Ryersson and Yaccarino are judicious historians of frivolity who capture the tone of a life that was obscenely profligate yet strangely pure."--The New Yorker

"Beautifully written . . . Prepare to be astonished."--ELLE

About the Author

Scot D. Ryersson is an award-winning writer, illustrator, and graphic designer. Michael Orlando Yaccarino is a freelance writer specializing in international genre film, fashion, music, and unconventional historical figures. Quentin Crisp (1908 1999) led a long and multifaceted life-from artist's model and commentator on style and etiquette to writer and theatrical and film performer. He is famous for his autobiography, The Naked Civil Servant. Francesca Granata is assistant professor of fashion studies at the School of Art and Design History and Theory at Parsons School of Design, the New School. She is author of Experimental Fashion: Performance Art, Carnival and the Grotesque Body.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0816645205
• ISBN 13: 9780816645206
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 235