‘Fashion is a muse – it will never end’

Peter Dundas and Anna Dello Russo discuss
empowering women, high glamour
and the ‘jet-set’ influence

Norwegian-born Peter Dundas has been the creative and artistic
director at Emilio Pucci since 2008. He began his career as an assistant
costume designer for the Comédie Française in Paris, and has held design
roles at Jean Paul Gaultier, Christian Lacroix, Roberto Cavalli, Ungaro
and Revillon. He lives mainly in Florence.

Bari-born, Milan-based Anna Dello Russo is the editor-at-large
and creative consultant for Vogue Japan, and a style celebrity thanks
to a penchant for changing her extravagant outfits several times
a day at the fashion shows. She spent 18 years at Condé Nast
Italia, starting as fashion editor of Vogue Italia and then serving as
editor of L’Uomo Vogue from 2000 to 2006.

Friendship
ADR: I collect all of Peter’s iconic pieces. What I
like about his style is that it’s at once cool and
ultra fierce. Even if a dress is isn’t body
conscious, it always makes a woman look sexy,
cool – the kind of woman I like. He’s great with
prints and colour, which can be tricky for many designers.

PD: It’s my interest to make clothes that make a
woman shine, that make her feel empowered; it’s
the kind of sexy that everyone likes. I remember
when we met – it was during my first Italian job
[in the Roberto Cavalli creative team] nearly 10
years ago. I was totally shy and so impressed by
how focused and precise you were in your
creative director role, considering the
total chaos that surrounded you.

ADR: When I first saw you, I thought,
“who is that handsome guy who looks like an actor?” Although
you came from France you didn’t, and still don’t, have an attitude.
You’re quite Zen, and shy, in my view the typical Norwegian:
candid, naif, pure. But you were so passionate, a volcano of ideas
that it was obvious from the beginning that
you wouldn’t stay in a team for long.

PD: We live in different cities and have intense
work schedules now, but we are still very close:
I’ve become your official walker.

ADR: Yes, you are my official walker.
You like to party and I like to
be accompanied by a handsome gentleman.
This kind of friendship is long-lasting, like the ones
with best friends from primary school.

PD: I like to think of you as my good fairy because you’re honest,
enthusiastic and supportive. Plus, you personalise every
outfit you wear and aren’t afraid to dare.

Personal style
ADR: I like to consider myself the guardian of fashion.
When I moved house 10 years ago, I had 4,000 pairs of shoes.
I had to buy a bigger home to store all the clothes because I need closets,
not kitchens, and many are now in my house in Bari [in the southern Puglia region].
I’m super tidy so every item is catalogued, stored in garment
bags with tissue paper, perfumed and on hangers that are all the same.
But I’m not a vintage fan – I don’t like the smell of old clothes.
I’m also not a fan of bags, because anything that is practical isn’t handsome;
if anything I like clutches. Pyjamas and tracksuits are sloppy so
I only wear Abercrombie & Fitch tracksuits to go to my yoga class.
If you dress comfortably, you don’t get the look.

PD: My father was a widower and he had no idea
of how to dress me and my sister because he was fine just wearing an anorak.
He would haphazardly customise old clothes, so I started making clothes
for my little sister and he brought me a sewing machine.
When I finished my studies, I decided that I wanted
to do something useful that I also enjoyed.

ADR: Even as a teenager I loathed jeans and
hoodies so I would ransack my mother’s closet, and the closets of
my mother’s friends. On Sunday morning, they would open their closets
to find they were missing a blouse or had a mismatched suit,
and they would groan, “Oh, that’s Anna”.
When I could, I would force my mum to buy designer clothes from
Callaghan, Complice, Missoni and Versace so I could wear them on my
Saturday night outings. They were too tight for her and too big for me,
so I nipped them with belts or pinned them.

PD: I spent lots of time in France, but I like the
spontaneity and sense of colour of Italians. They are more daring
and instinctive. In Florence I work 12 to 14 hours a day.
I appreciate the result-oriented attitude of the people and artisans
I work with, the desire to make things happen.

ADR: It’s a kind of more elevated and evolved ready-to-wear,
where creativity stretches out towards haute couture.
In part, I think it’s a reaction to an increasingly high level
but affordable mass market. Today ready-to-wear offers real
one-of-a-kind pieces, infused with top artisanal workmanship,
details and fashion codes that are totally glamorous
and very evening wear. The past 10 years were very hedonistic for fashion,
what with young jet-setters back on the fashion scene.

Jet-set glamour
PD: Young jet-setters are great because they give
the idea of lifestyle a more authentic glamour and aspirational connotation:
the way they live, their attitude, their look. Fashion is also going through a
generational change that is very exciting, because I want Pucci to be part of it.

ADR: I’ll never forget when I saw Bianca Brandolini d’Adda
at Valentino’s 45th anniversary party in Rome wearing a long white column.
It was one of her first outings with Lapo Elkann and she looked amazing,
like a new Marisa Berenson. High glam means less day wear and more unique
pieces on the runways. Phoebe Philo for Céline is perhaps the first designer living
today to have veered towards pure day wear again.

PD: It challenges me to give the consumer something
that has an even higher value in terms of design, quality and excellence.

ADR: Historical and social crises normally bring change
and that’s good. But you’re right, we must work harder. I love opulence, gold,
richness. I will always say that I was born in Versailles and will die at the Hermitage.
When I visited St Petersburg, I really felt at home like a czarina, attracted to the
gold gilded columns that are everywhere. My father often
compares me to Anastasia or to Tutankhamen.
I love to surround myself with beautiful things.

PD: Yes, but don’t forget: it’s normal for us;
we’re visual people after all. We believe in our dream and want to share it.
For me, colour is like great food. I get a thrill when I find the
right shade of pink or orange, it’s like eating dessert.

ADR: Fashion is a muse just like theatre, art, music, literature;
it’s a mirror, a sign of the times. It’s timeless, like music – even during the war,
you couldn’t stop people from singing. You can view it as a discipline,
as frivolous, as costume, but it will never end.

>> Say what you want about the bloggers vs. journalists scrap heap
that doesn’t want to die even though it effectively killed itself
off when journalists became bloggers and vice versa and thus turned
into a giant grey area. Instead of of the versus symbol, I’d like
to think it’s a -> / <- situation instead. Keyboard symbol translation?
That bloggers have much to learn from journalists and vice versa and
I learnt a little how from my short trip to Milan yesterday.

I was lucky enough to be privy to Anna “needs-no-intro” Dello Russo’s
personal scrapbook that she keeps and found a paper-based notation
system that was utterly inspiring. “I can’t get inspired in front
of the computer,” she says and so Dello Russo formulates her ideas
for blog posts by jotting down lists, drafting up posts and collaging
imagery into her Hermes leather bound notebook, ensuring there’s
enough highlighter pink and orange and birooutlined
lettering to hammer in her points.

If you thought that Dello Russo had a team of minions banging out
her posts, you can banish that though with a glimpse at her notebook.
Dello Russo may have embraced everything that the internet and
blogging has to offer but her experience having worked in print
for twenty years or so, shows in her dedication to the physical
written word. Her handwriting is neat, her lines are straight and
her colouring in of her bold lettering doesn’t stray beyond the
outline. That’s quite a plateful for any handwriting analyst.

Likewise with her imagery, she doesn’t simply tear out pages and
tack them into a book but instead carefully cuts things out, as
though she were about to do a bit of precise decoupaging.
I found myself absolutely mesmerised by her book, cowering
in the fact that I’ve never really thought to plan
my posts out by paper.

Even my own personal editorial-tearing and scrapbooking of physical
imagery has diminished when Tumblr and my organised folders of JPGs
came into place. Her desire to start her own blog in the first place
came about because she wanted to ensure the fashion credits of her
outfits were listed out properly, another reason why her print-to-blog
methodology works for her.

I never would have thought that Dello Russo would be a fashion media
benchmark but her simultaenous rooted dedication to print and positive
embracing of the internet as the vehicle of her self-image and her brand
definitely marks her out as someone in the industry, who
really knows how to get the best out of both worlds.

Anna is wearing Fausto Puglisi

Peroni Nastro Azzurro is celebrating Italian style in a series of talks at the V&A Museum in London with some of Italy’s most influential design and fashion figures. The next guest speaker is Anna Dello Russo, blogger,
editor-at-large for Vogue Japan and all-round fashionista.

A larger-than-life character, Anna Dello Russo is known for her vibrant use of colour, hyper-accessorising and wearing flamboyant catwalk looks as daywear. An internationally recognised fashionista, she was described by the late photographer Helmut Newton as a “fashion maniac” and stylist Gianluca Longo refers to her as “one of Italy’s best fashion exports; the embodiment of Italian style”.

Longo will interview Dello Russo at the V&A Museum, but he first met her 15 years ago. “When I was a fashion assistant, she was my idol,” he says. “We’re both from southern Italy and her style is typically ‘out there’. Like all the Italian greats – Dolce & Gabbana, Moschino and Roberto Cavalli – she is as exuberant
and colourful as you could imagine.”

Dello Russo agrees that her style is a product of a southern Italian upbringing: “In our culture, we approach life like a party – a garden party. We have the benefit of good weather and there is a great tradition of beauty; a fusion of fashion and lifestyle. Every expression of communication is positive and passionate;
food, culture and fashion.

“Where I’m from, eccentricity is alive. People have great taste and love colour. They dress for life. When I was young, there were religious parades in the streets, like carnivals. Everyone dressed in heavy jewellery, bright colours and extravagant fabrics – the powerful expression impressed me. My style has been contaminated by international travel, but Italy is still the biggest influence.”

Dello Russo transformed her passion for fashion into a career when she relocated from the south to Milan, completing a master’s in fashion under designer Gianfranco Ferré. Italian Vogue soon followed and after an editorial stint at L’Uomo Vogue, she took on her current post as editor-at-large and creative consultant for Vogue Japan, still based in Milan. But it was Dello Russo’s frequent appearances on Scott Schulman’s street style blog, The Sartorialist, that catapulted her inimitable
style out of the fashion industry closet.

“Bloggers are the new paparazzi,” she says. “It’s a modern revolution and has opened a window to the fashion industry. When Scott first took my picture, I asked him why and he said ‘there is no sense of fashion in a fashion magazine’. Bloggers know what is really happening on the street and they are more approachable than editors. There is real information available from them – it’s a parallel world to the fashion industry. I follow everything online and now I write my own blog.”

Thanks to the online exposure, Dello Russo has become a visible style icon, a contemporary Anna Piaggi (the Italian fashionistas were last spotted side by side on the front row at Versace’s autumn/winter 2012 menswear show) and is proud to be an ambassador for Italian style.

At her Peroni Collaborazioni talk at the V&A – which she describes as a temple – expect her to extol the virtues of new Italian designers she is championing, such as Milanese designer Fausto Puglisi (who created the baroque-style costumes that Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. wore at Madonna’s Superbowl show) and Caterina Gatta, who creates couture from vintage fabrics. And Dello Russo is unlikely to express any concern about the ability of the Italian fashion industry to weather the global recession: “We have never been rich – Italians are used to working under difficult financial conditions. It makes us more creative.”

Dello Russo also promises that her talk will be like her blog: “I love being in touch with people. I don’t want to teach, I want to give them my energy. British people have an incredible sense of style; they are never predictable. I’m just looking forward
to having a conversation with them.”

The Peroni Collaborazioni talks celebrate the craftsmanship, values and passion so often found in Italian culture by bringing together some of Italy’s most influential style names to share their views and experiences.

Fashion Credit: Chloé F/W 2011

Source: Symphony

Peter Copping and I

James Woolhouse and I

Mitsuko, Rie Miyazawa and I

Yuko Yamaguchi and I

Tao and I

Emmanuelle Alt and I

Balmain S/S 2012

Saori and I

Giambattista Valli and I

Bryan Boy and I

Jessica, Sena and I

D&G S/S 2012

Here’s looking at… Anna Dello Russo

The italian style sensation whose life is one long catwalk

Anna Dello Russo is staying at the Ritz,
her home away from home when she’s in Paris.
Although famous for her flamboyant style, Italy’s most eccentric fashion editor
opens the door in black Abercrombie sweatpants. ‘Like a soldier in the field’,
she says. ‘I needed to be agile, fast and pratical’.

Today, the Milan-based editor-at-large of Japanese Vogue
is a fashion phenomenon, dressing in elaborate and often astounding
outfits that delight fashion bloggers all over the world.
She has always been able to take one look at actors and dress then instantly
in eccentric outfits – without their batting an eyelid.

This all comes naturally to Anna. She’s simply playing out her
passion as an ongoing, real-life fashion shoot.
‘What I learnt form modelsand photographers I apply to myself’, she says. Everything Anna sees on the catwalk, down to the smallest detail, is mentally filed away. ‘No Polaroids – it’s all in my head.’

When ‘on duty’, Anna changes outfits two to three times a day,
but her wardrobe at the Ritz is not as full as one might expect.
The reason – she knows what she is going to wear six months in advance. A few pieces stand out: a lavish red brocade Cavalli coat, a white Celine coat with zebra fur collar and green open-toe Pucci python boots.

There’s a Prada fur stole on the sofa and Sergio Rossi thigh boots in the bath room. In fact, Anna wears the current or upcoming season only once before storing
it in a special air-conditioned apartment.

It takes her 45 minutes to get ready from scratch. ‘I’ll bathe, apply make-up and get dressed – it’s a ceremony’. She always takes along several outfits because, she says, ‘it’s important to consider the weather. My message is,
don’t just try one look, try different things.
I love colour, it’s lazy to wear only black.
Black saves us from situations, but it must never become a refuge’.

Photo Credit: Giampaolo SguraStyling: Anna Dello Russo and Paula Reedassisted by Lily Russo Hair: Madeleine Cofano @ B Agency
Make Up: Alice Ghendrih @ Artlist Source: Grazia Uk