Anna Dello Russo Looks to Gaga, Givenchy and Gold for Inspiration.
We could think of no better expert on how to put together the most attention-grabbing Halloween costume than Anna Dello Russo. Anyone who has glimpsed Vogue Japan’s editor-at-large hotfooting it around fashion week knows that she is among the most spectacularly dressed women on the planet. Many of her outfits—which have featured giant cherry headpieces, mushroom crinolines and molto gold––look positively out of this world, resulting in an obsessive following in the blogosphere and beyond (she was just shot by Juergen Teller for the latest edition of W magazine, and is the cover star of 10 magazine’s fall issue). Though she’s famed for rocking Moschino couture and Jason Wu cocktail dresses on simple mid-afternoon strolls, it’s at costume parties that Dello Russo really pulls out all the stops. Her take on Halloween is typically her own: she’s thinking about the visual tradition of Italy, and the fancy dress of Venice masked balls, as well as Lady Gaga. “I don’t care if it’s Halloween,” she says, “I’m thinking about my tradition!” For NOWNESS, she shares her top style references for a wickedly chic October 31.

Lady Gaga

I love Lady Gaga. I mean, I love everything: how she changes; the transformation. She becomes a new person each time you see her. I love her white hair now, too. She’s got the point of fashion. For the “Bad Romance” video, her collaboration with Alexander McQueen explored the idea of her different personalities, which is my mantra. Nobody is one person––you have a million versions of yourself inside and you should play with them.

Jeff Koons, Michael Jackson and Bubbles

Koons’s work is the perfect mix of modernity and tradition for me. Plus, Michael Jackson is an icon of pop culture and I love pop culture.

Riccardo Tisci, Givenchy Haute Couture Fall 2010

Tisci’s last couture collection was unbelievable. It was about the skeleton, with references to Mayan and South American culture. This dress… I hoped to wear it one day. But it’s impossible to wear—it’s so delicate, it’s all embroidery.

Alexander McQueen, Spring 2001

McQueen was my favorite designer because he always surprised the audience and communicated. There was lots of references and meaning in his work, it was a conversation with clothes, and this bird headpiece is just one of his numerous incredible shapes. His memorial was an amazing moment. When Björk came into St Paul’s Cathedral…. Unbelievable. Mamma Mia!

Francesco Scognamiglio, Spring 2011

He is a new designer from Naples, Italy, and a friend of mine. I like wearing new designers because I feel a responsibility to not just support the big brands. He is so glamorous, and uses lots of decoration.

Fish Costumes at the Chelsea Arts Ball, 1927

This is a Schiaparelli mood: women as fish. It’s anthropomorphic, part of the culture of fashion.
Source: Nowness.com

Anna Dello Russo on Headgear, Mummies and More
In the street style stakes, this year belongs to Anna Dello Russo. From her numerous appearances on sites such as the Sartorialist, Jak & Jil and Street Peeper, to the launch of her own blog this February (probably the most glittery, spangly web experience out there), to her increasing exposure in mainstream and print media (see her 10 magazine cover above), she has rapidly increased her profile to become one of the fashion world’s most recognizable personalities. But all this attention has not come without hard work: currently the editor-at-large for Vogue Japan, Dello Russo has been in the business for more than two decades, with previous stints as fashion editor at Vogue Italia and editor at L’Uomo Vogue. We caught up with Dello Russo (a self-proclaimed “Cinderella” figure) as she prepared to go to the ball—namely, photographer Giampaolo Sgura’s USA-themed Halloween extravaganza, which kicks off in Milan tomorrow night.

Were you into Halloween as a child?

No, not at all, Halloween doesn’t exist where I come from [Bari in southern Italy]. As children, we used to dress in similar costumes for carnivals, but Halloween in Italy is new—I don’t know why.
 
What is your favorite ever costume? The ensemble you wore for the Vogue Paris 90th anniversary this October was pretty incredible.

Yes. The pieces [a custom white ball gown with train by Peter Dundas; a Gareth Pugh feathered headpiece] were unique. Nobody else has them. Haute couture. Also, I loved that I was in white and everybody else was in black. I like to surprise people––when people expect something I like to do the opposite. When thinking about balls, you are thinking about things you would never be allowed to wear; something exaggerated. I like impossible outfits.

But you’ve made it your trademark to wear almost impossible outfits as daywear. What is an impossible outfit for you?

A headpiece; a huge train; high wedges. When I came back after the Vogue ball I had a headache because the outfit was so heavy on my head.

How do you even get around wearing something like that?

In the car, leaning in the back seat. Someone helped me—my driver!

And you’re doing something equally extravagant for Halloween?

Yes, it’s something good, but I want to dance this time, and I want to enjoy myself a little bit more with my friends, so it will be a little bit easier.

You seem to be obsessed with gold—what’s the attraction?

Gold is my new black. Gold is my basic color now. I always loved gold since I was a kid. Now I love gold clothes, gold hair. I just love the color. It has so much resonance in art, music and history, too. My favorite historical hero is Tutankhamun the Egyptian. He wore gold, in a gold house and he is still sleeping in that gold outfit…

Source: Nowness.com

Photo Credit: Giampaolo Sgura Source: Vogue JapanStyling: Anna Dello RussoStarring: Alessandra AmbrosioHair: Franco GobbiMakeup: Jessica Nesdza

Anna dello Russo, Italian, Extravagant, Style icon. These are only a few words frequently used to describe the Matriarch of the Fashion blogger fame and the fastest growing brand of any known fashion editor today. Determined to express her point of view, ADR has chosen a path that gives her slightly more freedom than that allowed by the politics and pressures of an increasingly more corporate industry. This season she managed to add yet another title to the ever growing list of positions played, styled by Katie Grand-a-minute for Emanuel Ungaro, Anna wasn’t just in attendance, she was a model in the show. Now, she sits with us to discuss her story, interests and the system by which she selects her stunning looks from the runways. Before our time was up, Anna also played dress up with designer and visual artist, Rad Hourani who both photographed and styled our latest subject exclusively for ONE interviews & Models.com. 

Christopher Michael: Anna Dello Russo… This is your real name?

Anna dello Russo: Yes (laughs), it’s mine.

CM: At what point in life did you realize you were as obsessed with fashion as you are now?

ADR: I was born in the south of Italy where there is no fashion, and as young as I can remember, I started to wonder how I could work with fashion because where I was from, there were no opportunities to do something with it. Where I’m from, there is just one mini boutique, nothing else…so not having access to it all had caused me to become quite obsessed. I thought for a moment that I should start my own boutique but then my father said “No way! After university!? You should go for it all the way, go to Milan and become what you want, a journalist.”

CM: What did you study at university?

ADR: Historic art, of course that was another reason I loved fashion. If you notice in all of the antique art, there are all the styles, proportions, colors and composition that are used in fashion. I studied all historic art, no contemporary.

CM: In the documentary called “CATALK” Andre Leon Talley was asked if he thought fashion was art, and his response was. “No fashion is not art, fashion is hard work!” I wanted to ask you this same question…Do you think that fashion is art?

ADR: No, absolutely not. I think fashion is a muse, like music, like art, they are all muses. Fashion is a popular communication, whereas art is more of an elective communication. I don’t believe fashion is art, no.
CM: I’ve been told that in the beginning many years ago, you were very shy… Is that true?

ADR: Yes, I was invisible! I was a beginner, first of all, and secondly I was a hard worker. At the time I didn’t have time to show off. I spent all my time and energy learning about photography, about shooting, about modeling. I didn’t ever think to dress up or put make up on myself because I was just working as much as I could to understand fashion and the images of fashion. I worked with the best photographers in the world, if I was next to Helmut Newton, I couldn’t think about hair and make up on myself! I was such a beginner, but I believe everything comes at the right time. That’s why I always say to young people now, visibility and blogging and all of that, it is not enough; don’t think this is the work. That is a beginning, it is a starting point. After that you have to put your energy into the job, and not just in parties and showing up to shows. I never used to come to New York for the shows, it was always only Paris. I remember, if Franca would take us to Paris, it was an incredible season. We didn’t have time to go and see the shows. I remember thinking, those people are so lucky to sit on the bench! After the shows in Paris, we would always work right away.

CM: So you would just pull directly from the shows you were watching for the shoot happening right after the week was done?

ADR: The first day of shows was fantastic…The second day, we would be choosing the looks from the collections for the stories already. Every month I was doing a shooting. Back then I was working with about 10 luggages, no assistant. I remember one time, it was quite funny, one of the American based editors called and said “Hello may I please speak to the shoe editor?,” and I remember looking at Alice [gentilucci] going, “Shoe editor? What are they talking about shoe editor?,” because it was just the two of us in the fashion department, that was it. It was a whole other level. Italians, we did an incredible job with no money and no assistants. Now it’s like having revenge, I come just to see the shows and I have time to dress myself up and all of this, it’s like a miracle.

CM: What originally lead to you leaving Italian Vogue?

ADR: I spent 12 years at Italian Vogue as Fashion Editor, after that Franca asked me to become the editor in chief of L’uomo Vogue and of course I said yes. I spent another 6 years at L’uomo Vogue, after which I left because I wanted to sort of, start my own career. I really wanted to go back to working on women. Then I was offered the position at Japanese Vogue.

CM: It seems that you are the real Matriarch behind the birth of the fashion blogger fame, after originally suggesting to Stefano and Domenico that they sit the bloggers front row… How did you come up with this idea?

ADR: I was talking with Stefano and Domenico saying that I believe there is a big evolution happening right now from the background. With magazines being so expensive, it was hard to reach the younger audiences and these bloggers were reaching those young people with their sites. I never felt the power of this evolution as much as now. We are always talking about the industry and trying to understand where it is, where it is going, etc. I said, “To me, this is an incredible, incredible phenomenon.” I’m lucky in that Stefano and I grew up together, we are the same age and he’s the best friend I have in the fashion industry.

CM: What was the catalyst for you where you decided to really come out and become your own brand?

ADR: I didn’t come out and talk about my brand, I talked about my freedom. At that time, I was thinking about my own expression, because of course I love Japanese Vogue, but in any case, I was thinking to express myself. I thought, I should really jump in this world and have a voice to really express myself. With magazines, you don’t really express yourself; you express a corporate vision, you express the vision of Conde Nast. It’s not really your point of view. You can’t say in the magazine what you really like, it’s all a very political vision. So I thought, maybe I should spend some time and energy to finally have my little voice, and now it’s happening.
CM: To the onlooker it would appear as though you are quite a big fan of social media across the board…

ADR: In the beginning I was so uncomfortable with it all, but now I love things like twitter; it’s very immediate and you can reach people NOW. Also, during fashion w
eek it can be very informative. Sometimes if I miss something or forget something I’ll end up seeing it on twitter. Another example is when I found out that Nicola Formichetti became the new creative director of Thierry Mugler via twitter. That’s what makes it incredible, you are staying in touch with your job in a spontaneous way. It’s really great.

CM: So it goes without saying then that you are a fan of how fashion has evolved into a much more accessible industry in place of the sort of closed off elitist world that it used to be…

ADR: Yes, because we spent 20 years closed up in our cage; in the past we sometimes didn’t go after the shows to say hi to the designer, even. It was more of a snobby attitude, it was too much. Now I completely love the fact that young people come to me and talk and you feel that sort of audience. I remember the years I was at L’uomo Vogue and I didn’t feel the audience. I’d find myself asking, who is the reader of this magazine? Straight, gay, old, young I had no idea. There was no way to really experience your audience. I find the way fashion has become now to be far more real and approachable.

CM: Being fascinated by the industry as a whole and its evolution, with bloggers having been a huge part of that constant change, what do you see as the next big evolution in our business?

ADR: That is a good question, I really don’t know where we are going, I really don’t know. To me, the speed of fashion is slowing down a little now, everyone seems to be getting to the roots. For example, everyone talking about heritage, roots and the history of fashion. This is nice.
CM: I think that’s really nice to hear. Everyone has felt such pressure to mass produce and do so in a hurry, the idea of slowing down and ’smelling the roses’ so to speak is nice. Speaking of new and change, you’ve been working a lot with Giampaolo Sgura…
ADR: Yes, I love him! He’s from the same city as me. For me, I get very excited when working with young people and to see how they see things. For me it’s about getting new and fresh air, and to not get stuck in my position, otherwise it’s already done. Giampaolo is an example of that fresh air, and at the same time going back to the excessive fashion of the past but doing it in a modern way.

CM: Who was the first magical moment for you working with a photographer…

ADR: Two moments, one was a moment with Helmut Newton; he took a picture of me, he was the first one to take a picture of me actually. That was in 1996. He said to me, “listen, after we finish shooting, I’d love to photograph you.” I was afraid thinking, is he going to want to shoot a nude picture of me? And said, “Are you sure Helmut?” and he said “Yes, take your long long black coat…” and we did the picture. The second was with Steven Meisel. I remember the first time I was so hot it was as if I had a fever, just from the nerves. Then he arrived and he had black hair and I said “oh my god, HE looks good too. What do I do!” He was so beautiful and, of course he was speaking English to me at a time when I did not speak English so well. During those years there was only one that I missed the chance to work with, which was Avedon, Richard Avedon.

CM: With all this talk about the 90’s, what sort of changes do you feel have occurred in magazines today in comparison to publications during the 1990’s…

ADR: First of all, in the 90’s everything was TOP…Top model, top photographer, top designer, all top. I felt like a little mouse, everything was huge in terms of proportion. When I used to come into the studio I always felt like such a little mouse, because you used to arrive and Claudia Schiffer was there, Linda Evangelista, Francois Nars… Everything was in huge scale. Now, the approach is much more democratic in a way, much more easy and cool, more approachable. There is a possibility to have different kinds of levels simultaneously. At that time, the level was pretty pretty high across the board. I remember some clothes were only reserved for Vogue, no other magazine was allowed to use them. Now, every magazine looks good because they have access to all the collections. Of course the economic pressures are starting to become more and more obvious since the recession, the client and the magazines both have to sell. In terms of how the work is approached, things are more ‘easy’ now.
CM: Well before there was less of everything, there were 20 models and now there are 3,000. There is more of everything from designers and photographers to stylists and magazines, all of it… Do you prefer working in this way over how it was when there was less of everything?

ADR: It’s not about one being better than the other, it’s about each time being different.

CM: Anna Dello Russo, the lady of looks, going through so many outfits in a day and over the entire show season. What goes into the selection of your clothing?

ADR: It has to be top level. I love catwalk outfits because they always have a lot of creativity. Full looks are good, I don’t like mixing. I share the passion with the designer, why should I mix it? They do very well with the catwalk pieces. I love when you can look and say “Oh this is a Givenchy, this is Balenciaga,” I love when it’s flashy clothing.

CM: You travel quite frequently but you’ve managed to keep your base in Italy, do you think that will ever change?

ADR: Yes because Italy is such a nice place to live, the quality of life here is so wonderful. First, of course I have my family here and secondly because it’s such a great place to live. When I travel around the world I love it, but how you can live in Italy is so easy. When I’m home in Italy, I don’t need anything, and the best city to go shopping is still Milan. The best selection, most of the clothes are done in Italy, the best place to go shopping is in Italy because you have an incredible selection of everything. Easy access, I still love to travel but I can tell you, in a couple of years I hope to be in one place and just enjoy the life.
An interview by One Mgmt’s Christopher Michael for models.com
PHOTOS BY Rad Hourani
MAKE UP BY Hung Vanngo
HAIR BY Wesley O’Meara
ANNA DELL RUSSO IS WEARING RAD HOURANI

Jil Sander – Balenciaga

Prada – Jil Sander

Miu Miu – Haider Ackermann  Source: Style.com

 Art Working by LULA Source: http://www.thesubjectiknowbest.com/

 Hits newstands on October 26th  Photo Credit: Giampaolo SguraFashion Credit: Balmain dress and Giuseppe Zanotti boots Source: 1o Magazine 

 “I’m going to show you inthis EXCLUSIVE video backstageof Sgura’s shooting for celebrate 10 Anniversary Issue of 10 MAGAZINEALL THE RAVISHING LOOKSthat I wore…”Anna 

The fashion director ofJapanese Vogue, Anna Dello Russo,has bottled her blogging success.Hernamesake fragrance is set to roll out inDecember exclusively online with theItalian e-tailer Yoox. As the fragrance industry hunts forclues as to how to reignite the sectorand appeal to a new generation of users,Dello Russo is tapping into interestingterritory as well marking out a new onefor fashion editors. “My fragrance is a gadget; it’s a massmarkettoy. I wanted to create somethingpop,” said Dello Russo, who spent 18years at Condé Nast Italia as fashion editorof Vogue Italia and editor of L’UomoVogue before leaving the Italian editorialgroup in 2006. After launching her blog earlier thisyear — the site receives some 200,000hits every month — Dello Russo admits new forms of communication intrigue her.“The Web has changed the rules of fashion— there now exists another world online,”she said, fielding calls from her well-publicizedMilan apartment. “It’s the momentfor an individual voice.Communicationis going in this direction, and it’swhy theperfume came about.”Art director RonnieCooke Newhouse is credited with plantingthe seed in Dello Russo’s mind. Perfumer Adlen Moumene fromFirmenich created the scent, which is describedas a vanilla cream and blends theingredients almonds and vanilla, inspiredby Dello Russo’s childhood in Puglia andmemories of her grandmother’s kitchen. The scent’s bottle is a gold shoe,reminiscent of Cinderella’s slipper. “For20 years no one noticed me — I workedlike Cinderella at the bottom of the pile. Finally I’ve been invited to the ball,” shesaid referring to her fairy-tale blogospherefame at the age of 47, and a flurryof commercial offers. Dello Russo explained she wantedthe scent flacon to fit in a clutch bag andto reference a Christmas bauble.A loopaffixed to the bottle’s heel will allowusers to hang it from a tree. Its art directionis by Marco Braga and GiulianoFederico from the agency Modecracy. The pocket-sized 10-ml. scent willretail for $25.According to industry sources, whenthe news broke about plans to developher signature juice, stores includingSelfridges, Colette, Lane Crawford andthe Japanese retailer Restir contactedDello Russo. On her decision to sell onlyonline she said, “I was born online andwant to stay online, plus Yoox believed inme at the beginning,” referring to a lineof T-shirts featuring her image that soldout in three hours on the retailer’s site.Yoox’s founder and chief executive officer,Federico Marchetti, said, “Yoox.comis a global communication and distributionplatform perfect for young designers,editors and artists that want to experiment.” Although he declined to break outsales figures, he said the company “expectsvolumes” with regards to sales ofthe Anna Dello Russo scent. Yoox.com receives6 million unique monthly visitors. “I want to do a record next,” saidDello Russo when asked about her forthcomingplans.“Everyone expects me todo a clothes line. It’s too obvious.I wantto do the opposite.”    Photo Credit: Giampaolo SguraArt Direction: Marco Braga and Giuliano Federico for MODECRACYInterview by Kerry OlsenSource: WWD Friday 22 October 2010

 Source: The SartorialistPhoto credit: Scott Schuman 

Guess Who I Sat Behind At The Kanye West

“Runaway” Premiere in Paris? 

Yes, Anna Dello Russo and her headpiece!
She’s really one of the most charming characters in fashion today.

“I really love this ABSOLUTELY FLAWLESS picture!”
Anna

Source: W Magazine November 2010Photo credit: Juergen TellerInterview by J. J. Martin
Anna Dello Russo: Little Miss Maximalist
Italian stylist Anna Dello Russo pushes fashion to the extreme—not just in her work but in the way she lives. J.J. Martin visits her apartment-cum-closet.

On the second floor of an early-1900s apartment building in Milan sits a Chanel doormat that is shared by two adjacent one-bedroom apartments. The first belongs to 47-year-old fashion director Anna Dello Russo. The second belongs to her clothes—and if you are, say, a crystal Miu Miu stiletto or a leopard-print Lanvin dress, you’ve got all the trappings of an aristocrat in preunified Italy.
The furniture in apartment number two is 19th-century Italian, and the space is filled with a pirate’s booty of glittering designer shoes and costume jewelry. The walls are covered in blown-up photographs of the grand, gilded interiors of Palermo’s Palazzo Gangi, the location for Visconti’s Il Gattopardo; the one concession to modernity is the green marble bathroom and its updated plumbing. “You never know when the clothes might need a bath,” Dello Russo says.
Such a living arrangement might be considered unusual by anyone who didn’t own 4,000 pairs of shoes and 250 black tuxedo jackets and wasn’t 100 percent fueled by fashion. “Anna would eat clothes if she could,” says Sophie Djerlal, a colleague at Vogue Italia, where Dello Russo was a fashion editor in the Nineties.
Back then Dello Russo was, in her own words, dressing “like a man.” But now, having helmed L’Uomo Vogue and served as fashion director of Japanese Vogue, she has morphed into Miss Maximalist—picture the ballsiness of Lady Gaga and the inventory of Imelda Marcos rolled into one supercharged style hurricane. During Fashion Week in Milan, she changes (usually in her chauffeured car) into rare-bird-of-fashion outfits no fewer than two or three times a day. In such getups as a gold sequined minidress by Emilio Pucci at three in the afternoon and a Roksanda Ilincic suit with huge feather humps that conjure a dark-angel linebacker, Dello Russo has become the crowned queen of street-style bloggers, who know that what she wears is likely to be bigger, bolder, and more trendsetting than what will be on the catwalks. “She truly loves fashion,” remarks Scott Schuman, whose Sartorialist blog ardently chronicles the stylist. “What makes her unique is that there’s a real sincerity. She respects the clothes.”
Dello Russo’s fixation came early, and from out of nowhere. “I was crazy about fashion from the day I was born,” she says. As a child in Bari, where she grew up with a psychiatrist father and a not-clothes-obsessed mother, Dello Russo stalked her friends’ mothers’ closets and tortured her Barbies with relentless restylings. Her first important spree was at age 13: a Fendi handbag, umbrella, tissue holder, wallet, and key chain that she wore all together. “It never rains in Bari, so my friends asked, ‘What are you doing with the umbrella?’ And I said, ‘How should I know? It’s part of the look!’”
By high school she was a full-fledged slave to fashion. Once, she wore a pair of yellow shoes that her cat had used as a litter box the night before. They were instrumental to her preplanned all-yellow outfit, so she just rinsed them out. “But it got hot in the classroom, and there was this terrible stink of cat pee,” she recalls. “I had to confess because I didn’t want anyone thinking I had peed in my pants. They all screamed, ‘Couldn’t you have changed your shoes?’”
Such fierce dedication to fashion has only intensified with age. Dello Russo—who keeps her figure like a licorice whip with 6 a.m. swims at the Hotel Principe di Savoia—professes that it takes her “six months” to get dressed. For Fashion Week she will consider only pieces that are strong on shock value and that have never been worn. “The preparation,” she says, sighing, “is truly scientific.”
Just as rigorously mathematical is the layout of apartment number one, which has also been carefully mapped out to accommodate her rotating ensembles. New purchases get front-row treatment in the main walk-in closet, next to her leopard-print bedroom. A zoolike collection of exotic fur coats (“It’s been a bloodbath—furs are my weakness,” she admits) is maintained in labeled cloth bags, while a season’s lesser models get relegated to nonslip hangers in the nosebleed back row. Once the season ends, everything is cleared out (except for the furs, which are exempt from expiration dates) to make way for new loot. Depending on the evicted item’s star wattage, it may go next door, to apartment number two, from which it may or may not emerge. Or it may be exiled to a giant closeted basement: the fashion graveyard. For Dello Russo, if you’re not new, you’re about as good as dead. “I hate vintage clothes,” she says, referring even to last year’s Prada. “I love the smell of a new store, not an old dress.”
Dello Russo prefers the aroma of retail to the smell of food, too. She installed her polished steel kitchen, roughly the size of a drinks cabinet, in a dim corner off the apartment’s main hallway: “I had to choose between a kitchen and more closets, so I took the closets.” (A quick survey of the fingerprint-less cupboards reveals a stock of sunflower seeds and San Pellegrino.) She also had to choose between a husband—whom she wed in 1996 in a dress with a 60-foot train designed by his best man, Stefano Gabbana—and more closets. “It barely lasted,” she says of her marriage. “He said, ‘Isn’t there some closet space for me?’ And I said, ‘No.’”
In her typical easygoing way, Dello Russo laughs at the comedy of the situation. Now her companion in th
is fashion temple is Cucciolina, a mini­ature pinscher who shares her owner’s wiry frame and golden mane but thankfully hasn’t attempted to lay claim to any storage space. “The only thing she’ll ever wear,” Dello Russo says, “is her Hermès dog collar.”

 Next big thing: HALLOWOOD 2010 AMERICA
another mask party in Milan Saturday 30 Octoberhosted by Giampaolo Sgura and Miguel Arnau.

I’m going to tell you my 10 RULES:

1. Don’t wear a FLAG with stripes and stars.

2. Don’t be the Statue of Liberty, (so  obvious).

3. No Cow-Boy, no Western movie(this is AMERICA seen through the italian eyes).

4. No too large groups.You risk to water down the wine.

5. Don’t be a caricature but emphatizeyour BEAUTY.

6. Choose a MASK that looks good on you.

7. Choose a photogenic LOOK.
Photocall this time is so important.

8. Book HAIR and MAKE-UP now,
you risk to don’t find any available team.

9. When you get dress enjoy that moment(it’s something about yourself).

10. Send your thanks to GIAMPY and MIGUEL:
it’s a BIG production”Anna

Source: Purple DiaryPhoto credit: Olivier Zahm

Fashion credit: dress Emilio Pucci,headpiece Gareth Pugh “I already said everything about my look for the MASQUERADE BALL Celebrating VOGUE PARIS ’90th Anniversary.

I’ll never forget that SURREAL and GRAND atmosphere of that night:
 CARINE ROITFELD all-beautiful in her Givenchy Couture dress,
photographers at the photo-call excited and crazy, all those incredible masks that were crossed in the saloons …
It was an UNFORGETTABLE FASHION MOMENT”Anna

Meet Anna Dello Russo, the outrageous, glamorous, wild-child editor of Nippon Vogue. Paul Flynn talks to the fashion iconoclast about nudity, sex appeal and what she wore to her divorce.

Nippon Vogue’s Fashion Editor-at-Large Anna Dello Russo is on the phone from her vacation home in her native Puglia, Italy. What is she wearing?

“Darling, I am always naked on holiday! It is my break from fashion.”

Helmut Newton once described ADR as a “Fashion Maniac.” Rather than take it as a slight, she splashed the tribute proudly at the top of her website, simply taking it as an upbeat twist on the snarky old put-down “Fashion Victim.” After an hour of listening to Dello Russo squawking down the phone in her gloriously faulty, troppo-accented pigeon English, you simply have to concur with the description.

“I keep my eyes in movement for beauty,” she says. “Fashion is everywhere. Everywhere! Flowers are fashion to me. The sky is fashion. My garden is fashion.” A brief pause before the final, sacred annunciation: “My darling, the Sistine chapel is fashion.” Of course it is. Fashion’s other Anna is a resident of Milan, 47 and childless, who over three decades has earned a place among the industry’s most fabulous characters. She spent 18 years at Conde Nast Italia, as fashion editor of Vogue Italia and editor of L’Uomo Vogue. An odd blossoming has happened since her departure from Conde Nast Italia in 2006. Upon arriving at Nippon Vogue she began to enter an elite set of women who turn runway fashion into a revolving carousel of glorious daywear. Her special ability is to parlay the best designer’s eye into the mundane realities of the day-to-day. She understands the sparkle it lends life.

Along with her counterparts Anna Wintour at American Vogue and Carine Roitfeld at Paris Vogue, under whom she trained, Daphne Guinness and the long-armed shadow of the late Isabella Blow, ADR has zipped up the fashion radar to become one of its true modern iconoclasts. The difference? There is no stony-faced seriousness to ADR. She does it all with a smile.

“When I start in the ’90s the atmosphere was so severe,” she says. “You could not tell how much people love fashion. I was so frustrated. The atmosphere was so by-the-rules. You could not show enjoyment. Why not? Show it off! Minimal or whatever you want to call it, that was the worst time for me. Awful. I want to scream ‘Bella!’ when I see something on the runway. I do not want to sit and show no emotion. I shout ‘Ooh la la!’ Finally we can get out of control about fashion.”

She embraced an upswing in fashion enthusiasm happening with the advent of fashion blogging. She is now its most voluble advocate. “Bloggers were a revolution because they started to tell the truth about fashion,” she says. “I do not know why people would feel embarrassed about fashion. Do you?”

With the support of her unofficial portraitist, The Sartorialist’s Scott Schuman, she took herself from behind the camera out into the spotlight. On a recent shoot, she managed to accomplish both her day job and the work of self-promotion: she combined a session with the gorgeous Italian model Alessandra Ambrosio for Nippon Vogue with a portfolio of herself for Ten magazine. “There is this beautiful young thing,” she says. “And then me in some of the same clothes. And in my pictures I look like transvestite.” Again, “Why not?”

She prepares for her whirlwind, worldwide fashion week tour with inscrutability and perfectionism. She presents fashion as a visual fiction, working it as a metaphor for escape. She will catalogue the scores of looks she gets through in New York, London, Milan, Paris, and finally Tokyo as long as six months in advance. Junior stylists gasp as she emerges from the car she uses as a changing room between shows (her driver, she insists, is now almost un-shockable when it comes to the detailed aspects of her anatomy) in one of an endless succession of beautifully adjudged set pieces. “The point is not that I wear things that people have never seen before,” she says. “It is that I wear things that people have never seen me wear before.”

ADR describes her relationship with high fashion almost a youthful naivety. “You know like a child who gets more calm when they play? I am that kid,” she says. “Fashion is a therapeutic approach to life for me. I have a parallel life. It is a visual. I color myself in, that is how I get myself up, up, up. Since I have been born that is my therapy for life. It’s my version of survival. Without fashion I’m a very anxious person.”

Not that her execution is anything less than adult. “Of course fashion is sexy,” she says. “I learned sexy from Tom Ford and Carine in the ‘90s for the Gucci. They talked about sex in a good way. In an ironic way. In a fashionable way. I love playing with this idea of sex. What I learned from Carine and Tom’s Gucci shows was not to talk about sex in a vulgar way. There was a little shock about the Gucci campaign with the G in the [pubic] hair but I like things that are uncontrollable. If fashion makes you feel more sexy, why not? Sometimes you feel sexy, sometimes you feel sensual, sometimes you feel aggressive, sometimes you feel shy. You should play with this rather than be frustrated about it. You should touch and feel these senses of yourself. You must enjoy them.”

For ADR, fashion is all about empowerment. For every occasion there is an outfit. For some, there are many. When she married (“a long, long time ago,” she says, refusing to specify) she wore a gown crafted for her by the legendary hands of her friends Dolce & Gabbana. “It was not a good experience for me. Except for the clothes. The dress was fabulous.”

The day of her divorce, she opted for a black Balenciaga two-piece. ”Because I was feeling really, really desperate. Balenciaga, Balenciaga! The perfect divorce outfit. Perfect! I looked like the sad, grieving, how do you say ‘vedova’ in English?”

Widow?

”Widow! Exactly. At that time I was not laughing at all. Now? I am laughing every day. Each day is filled with laughter.”

Source: thedailybeast.com