Anna Dello Russo is the woman who’s launched a thousand street-style blogs. The tirelessly exuberant editor at large of Vogue Nippon is basically synonymous with front-row style (not to mention giant fruit hats). But that’s thanks in part to Tommy Ton, who has made a subspecialty of documenting her numerous outfit changes in loving detail, both on Style.com and on his own blog, JakAndJil. He and Dello Russo will both be in Toronto tomorrow for When Tommy Met Anna, an exhibition at The Bay department store chronicling their ongoing friendship, and the many, many photos he’s taken of her since he first spotted her—in gold D&G mesh—back in March 2007. “She’s gone from Anna Dello Russo to ADR to…I don’t even know what you want to call her today. Anna Dello Gaga?” the Canadian lensman says of Dello Russo’s evolution. For her part, ADR is blunter: “He is my guru,” she explains. “For me, Tommy is now my fashion eyes.” Style.com spoke to the duo about partnership,four years and counting.
The exhibition is called When Tommy Met Anna. Tommy,do you remember when you first spotted her?
Tommy Ton: I do remember the first time I photographed her. It was March 2007, outside Galliano. She was wearing a gold D&G chain mesh top. She was very hesitant about being photographed. And then the next morning at Nina Ricci, which was Olivier Theyskens’ first show for Nina Ricci, she was wearing a silver sequined dress and a fox-fur collar and I was like, what is this woman on? I couldn’t believe she was wearing this at 10 in the morning. I only discovered her the last two days of Paris fashion week.

The next season, that’s when I started to realize this woman really dresses up, so I started taking her picture. I had a hard time photographing her, asking her to stop, because she wasn’t used to the idea of being photographed. It took maybe a couple seasons to realize she’s like a creature in the wild—you have to photograph them while they’re being who they are. When she appears, it’s kind of like a movie set, like the stars on set—just to see her change multiple times within the day, I realized, this is someone to photographed. With the popularity of my blog, and featuring Anna so much on Style.com, I think that’s when people realizedshe’s a force to be reckoned with.

And what about the first official meeting?
TT: For the longest time, she was wondering who Tommy Ton was. She kept trying to figure it out. I’m very quiet, I’m very passive. One of her assistants found out who I was. On the last day of Milan, September 2009, she came up to me and was like, “You are Tom.” I was frightened of her, so I was like, “Yes, I am Tom.” And she said, “Good work.” And she just walked away. I thought, Wow, she is speaking to me now. That was the breaking point, that this woman who I was, like, stalking, was aware of who I was and what I work with and found out what I look like. From that point on,it became an interesting dialogue and then a friendship.

Anna Dello Russo: I met Tommy at the shows, of course. I remember, this phenomenon [of] blogs taking pictures of us…It’d been a couple of seasons, and the number of blog photographers was bigger. I think I was so clueless about this phenomenon, I was always looking at the JakAndJil blog. But nobody knew Tommy, because he’s in a kind of hiding. I remember [asking], who is JakAndJil? We would guess, me and my team—maybe he’s an Australian photographer,maybe he’s whatever.

Finally, a girl from my team said the photographer is called Tommy Ton. So many names! Tommy Ton, JakAndJil. During a show, somebody said, oh, this is it—and points [out] Tommy. I say, oh, that’s Tommy! Looks so cute! Looks so lovely! I came to him and said, are you Tommy Ton? He said, yes, pleased to meet you. I said, finally! Nobody knows who you are, how you look. He told me when we met that he used to photograph me and I used to be rude to him because I didn’t recognize him at the beginning. But I was just surprised about the phenomenon, shocked how many people were looking at us, taking pictures of us. But finally when I understood it was him,I came to him and introduced myself.

Did you purposefully avoid identifying yourself, Tommy?
TT: I always resist identifying myself to anyone. The moment you tell someone, the photo doesn’t seem the same. They’re aware that their photo is being taken—they might be a little more pose-y, not as natural. But Anna knows not to pose for me. But it’s gotten to a level now where she dances for me. She says, “Tommy, why don’t you do more poses? Just walking is so boring.” I’m like, that’s my thing. What’s really funny about her is that, if you saw Emmanuelle Alt dancing, that’s kind of awkward. But when you see Anna in this cherry hat jumping up and dancing, there’s just something really funny about that. It goes to show you how much fun she’s having with fashion—and the fact that she calls herself a fashion victim, or a tranny.

Do you have favorite outfits of hers?
TT: There was one time in the summer of 2009, before we even started talking, during the men’s season. She showed up at the men’s Bottega show at 9 a.m. in this one-shouldered red Lanvin dress. I was like, “It’s 9 a.m. and she’s wearing this one-shouldered cocktail frock!” She never passes this moment [up], to dress up. I knew from that moment she’s definitely one to watch. And that day, I couldn’t get enough photos of her. There was this woman in a cherry red dress popping out from the crowd.

[Or] last season, at Dior…she was wearing this Roksanda Ilincic big-shouldered feather jacket. When she wore it, it was really windy. The wind was blowing up the feathers and she said, “Tommy, Tommy, I’m flying!”

There are so many outfits. It’s hard to pick a favorite…she keeps outdoing herself over and over. When she started wearing fruits on her head, I said
to her, the next thing’ll have to be a piece of cheese on her head, with a diamanté mouse on it.

Anna, do you have favorites from Tommy’s shots?
ADR: When I see his pictures, I think, ack, this is a mistake in my outfit! In the pictures, I see the mistakes. I think, next time…[But] I’m completely obsessed. I can spend hours with him, when he comes to me in my house; I’m really pleased to share this passion with him. To do the right outfit or get ready. He has such critical eyes. He made my outfit even more fragile. I’m super-critical. But I love. For me, it’s normal to make a mistake, otherwise your fashion will be exactly what it is,which is a challenge every day.

What’s special about Tommy’s pictures?
ADR: I like so much his pictures because he is always hanging around outside, to catch the right [shot]…when he takes a picture of me, he doesn’t take one. He shoots all day long. Maybe the right picture will be when the light is a little more cold, or hot, when the angle of the sun will be good…He keeps shooting, shooting, shooting. That’s a fashion photographer. It’s completely the right attitude to fashion photography.Never enough.

Second, he has incredible eyes for details. That’s a talent as a fashion photographer. To emphasize what you see. The crop has to be perfect. I like him because I always say you are like a shark. When you see people dressing, when you see fashion, it is like food for you. You are like a shark that is like chomp chomp chomp, eating food. I call him passive-aggressive, because he looks really…sweet,but he has this incredible aggressivity.

The best-dressed of the day, he catches. He is phenomenal in that. Sometimes, I think I missed the best-dressed of the day…if it’s Taylor [Tomasi Hill], or Emmanuelle in Balmain, or whatever. For sure, he has it. Always there, always there, always there. Like a shark, next to the blood. I love so much to see his eyes looking desperately for the new food. It’s like me…I die if I don’t get the right look. The right shoes…I can research shoes for three days shopping if I don’t find what I need.We share the fashion obsession.

And Tommy, what’s unique about Anna?
TT: What’s interesting about our relationship is people are seeing how accessible she is. The difference between her and Carine and Anna Wintour is that Anna [Dello Russo] is just so gracious, and so easy to approach. She’s someone who loves fashion, and if you’re someone who adores her and loves fashion, she’s more than willing to stop and take a photo, or just talk to you. Not everyone’s an ice queen. Last season in London there was this six-foot tranny with a blow-up wig or something. I said to her, go up and talk to the tranny. She said, “OK—why not?”That’s her favorite line. “Why not?”

Anna, how do you prepare your looks?
ADR: I put my life in the preparations. I prepare my outfits in any case. Never-ending research is a part of my job. For me, I have to please Tommy, he is my guru. This is my new blog guru. I need to surprise him! I need to seduce him! He represents the eyes of fashion. To find something new, it takes a long preparation. For me, Tommy now is my fashion eyes. When it’s Tommy, I should be perfect—everything has to look perfect.

TT: She always says that she has to please the bloggers now. She says she feels it’s her job now to dress up, whereas before she was dressing for herself. The fact that she plans months in advance, outfits for fashion month, and changes strategically two or three times a day based on the event, that represents ADR this woman, this fashion icon. Whereas Anna, if you’re speaking of Anna, she’s the womanthat wears Abercrombie at home or at yoga.

I’ve heard that she wears sweats at home—frankly,I’d always thought it was a myth.
TT: The funny thing is, on the last day of Paris fashion week, when I went to see her to have a last chat, she answered the door in sweatpants and a sweater, but she was still wearing heels. I was like, Anna, were you sleeping in heels?She said, “Only for you, Tommy.”

Photo Credit: Tommy TonInterview by Matthew SchneierSource: Style.com

Source: CNN InternationalInterview by Myleene KlassThanks to Giampaolo SguraThanks to Sinisha Nisevic


Fashion Credit: Emilio Pucci
Bijox Carlo Zini
Hat Alan Journo
Hair and Make Up: Andrew Guida
@Close-Up Milan
Source: El Pais

Photo Credit: Giampaolo Sgura
Styling: Miguel Arnau
Fashion Credit: Emilio Pucci
Bijox Carlo Zini
Hat Alan Journo
Hair and Make Up: Andrew Guida
@Close-Up Milan
Source: El Pais

Nina Ricci

Giorgio Armani

Mary Katrantzou

Lanvin

Interview: Lyna V Ahanda Photo Credit: Thomas Humery / KløverSource: Vogue.fr    Dans le dressing d’Anna Dello Russo Anna fait partie de ces filles qu’on n’a pas besoin de présenter.Fashion victime et fière de l’être, editor at large au Vogue Nippon, elle a un dressing à en faire pâlir plus d’une : couverte de marques de la tête aux pieds, le look d’Anna reprend toutes les tendances que l’on voit sur les catwalks et qu’on pense ne jamais voir dans la rue. Vogue.fr est allé à sa rencontre, dans sa suite du Ritz, pendant la semaine de la mode parisienne. Charmante et accueillante, elle a pris le temps de nous recevoir et nous montrer le dressing qu’elle a emporté avec elle : « Comme je ne peux pas voyager partout avec mon dressing, je prépare mes tenues de la fashion week, des mois à l’avance». Pendant qu’elle change de tenue, nous écoutons le dernier album du rappeur Kanye West  : « Kanye et moi sommes tous les deux dingues de mode, c’est incroyable de rencontrer quelqu’un qui comprend autant mon obsession » avoue-t-elle, touchante. Anna est aussi une grande perfectionniste. A plus de 40 ans, elle entretient son corps grâce à une discipline de fer : «Je me lève tous les matins à 6H, je ne sors jamais tard le soir, ne bois pas d’alcool et pratique le yoga de façon intensive ». En matière de mode, elle applique les même règles strictes « contrairement à ce que les gens peuvent croire, je ne porte des talons que 6 semaines dans l’année pendant les fashion weeks de New York, Milan et Paris, le reste du temps je suis à plat ». 

 ADR: ‘I’ve finally been invited to the ball’
 How the fashion editor became as big a story as the catwalks she covers
By Alex Fury
 Sunday, 13 March 2011

Anna Dello Russo is not just any fashion editor. You can tell that as soon as she walks into a room, looking like a living, breathing editorial page from Vogue Japan, her Condé Nast powerhouse. Today, she is wearing a leopard-print Lanvin dress, Bulgari jewels and Manolo Blahnik shoes. A fairly standard fashion editor wardrobe, you might think. Except Dello Russo has affixed a pair of bowling ball-sized fibreglass cherries to her head – she also sported a gold version at the autumn/winter 2011 New York shows, with a rodeo-fringed leather coat to match. Dello Russo’s train of thought is simple: “It’s my first job to make myself up. I style myself like I style a model. You should put your passion on yourself before translating to other people.”
Dello Russo’s idiosyncrasies don’t stop at clothing. How many fashion editors do you know with their own eponymous fragrance – released by yoox.com last year in a bejewelled shoe that was inspired by a Christmas-tree bauble? Actually, how many do you know with their own self-managed blog, or a retinue of staff whose email signature reads “Anna Dello Russo Factory”? It’s easy to imagine Anna as a fictional character marching her Manolos through Funny Face or even Prêt-à-Porter, but this is what being a 21st-century fashion editor is all about – part celebrity, part caricature; definitely larger than life.
We’ve seen hints before in the deification of US Vogue’s Anna Wintour and the former French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld, whose names have become known to people who never read the fashion pages, via prime-time documentaries and fictional characterisations galore. But Dello Russo is another entity entirely – creative director and fashion consultant Ronnie Cooke Newhouse described her as an “insider fashion reality star”, and she’s in touch with her audience 24/7. She blogs on annadellorusso.com and tweets during the shows, broadcasting her image over the internet and even across competitors’ magazines (she was the lead editorial and cover-girl of last autumn’s 10 magazine). The final leap, never before made by any member of the fashion press, was on to the catwalk last year, modelling for the Lanvin/H&M fashion show in New York, and for Giles Deacon’s first presentation for the Parisian house of Emanuel Ungaro – a neat inversion of the set that looks and the set that is looked at in the world of fashion. Online, plugged in and turned on, she explodes the idea of the fashion editor being at least once removed from the general public. Anna Dello Russo is always ready for her close-up.
The question remains: from whence did she spring, fully formed, to thrash the fashion world into a collective frenzy with a length of gold lamé? Dello Russo has actually been working in fashion for more than 20 years, 18 of those at Condé Nast Italia alongside Franca Sozzani, the all-powerful editor-in-chief of Italian Vogue. However, it was only with the advent of the internet and fashion-savvy street-style bloggers such as Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist and Jak & Jil’s Tommy Ton that Dello Russo’s hardcore love of fashion reached a global audience. As her extreme catwalk looks popped up all over the internet, the general public collectively gasped: “Who is this woman? And why is she wearing a slice of watermelon on her head?”
Today, street-style bloggers have multiplied, but they all seem to remain enamoured by Dello Russo – her stride slows to a crawl as hundreds cluster to pap-snap her outfits between car and show as she does the rounds of the international capitals during fashion weeks. “They made me. They made a new career,” Dello Russo states, matter-of-fact. Her upfront nature is one of her most endearing qualities – and incredibly rare in fashion. Maybe it’s because, by her own admission, her English is “no so good”: her accent is as thick as carbonara sauce, punctuated with much extravagant gesturing and clankingof various items of jewellery.
Those photographers, however, only gave visibility to something already brewing. Dello Russo has been collecting clothing for 20 years, keeping her ever-expanding wardrobe in a climate-controlled second apartment next door to her home in Milan. This she sees not as an extravagance, but as an investment, both financially and culturally. “All my money, all my passion goes into the best, the key pieces of fashion. The pieces people want to see in the future,” she says. Generally, that means catwalk-hot, high-octane fashion – Dello Russo has a penchant for the glitzy, ritzy dresses created by Peter Dundas for Emilio Pucci and Christophe Decarnin at Balmain, short and encrusted with embroidery and glitter. They’re not generally considered “daywear”, but Dello Russo doesn’t really do day. “I don’t have this routine life. I don’t go into the office; I’m travelling around the world. I’m lucky. But I never liked easy clothes in my life. My mother said, ‘You want a pair of jeans?’ and I said, ‘No, mother, I want a couture dress!’”
According to Dello Russo, her childhood contained many gems like this. Born in the Italian provincial town of Bari in 1962, she was a dedicated follower of fashion from her early years. “I was always looking in the bag, look at the jewellery. Mamma would say, ‘Please don’t do that, it’s not polite’, but I would say, ‘Mamma, I love the bag!’” The breakthrough fashion moment wasindicative of Italian fashion in the 1980s. ”I said to my father, ‘Father, I would like a bag – not just a bag, a set of Fendi bags.’ This was 1980s time, so logomania!” Dello Russo’s hands spring into action, waving in the air as she spits out “F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F” like a fashion firearm to describe the Fendi initial-spotted zucca weave. You get the feeling she probably still has that Fendi luggage set somewhere, shrouded in acid-freetissue in her hermetically sealed archives.
From there it was an obvious step to Milan and Vogue Italia, during the early-1990s boom time of Italian fashion. “It was an incredible moment. Incredible creativity, a massive fashion moment. Dolce & Gabbana were starting, the golden age of Italian fashion. Versace, Armani, Ferré, Missoni – an amazing ‘Made in Italy’ moment.” Dello Russo worked at Condé Nast Italia for 18 years: 12 with Vogue, then six with the male-focused L’Uomo Vogue. During those years, she never missed a round of the bi-yearly fashion collections. “For me, everything is by consequence. That’s why I never want to miss a season – I saw the evolution of fashion.”
Passion is a word that leaps to mind when scrambling to describe Dello Russo’s approach to fashion. Helmut Newton had another term: “fashion maniac”, a badge she wears with pride. Her overwhelming love of the industry stands as anathema to the black-clad fashion world’s obsession with cool. Dello Russo has the maxim “I don’t want to be cool, I want to be fashion” writ large across her blog, and is rarely clad in black, preferring instead the peacock plumage of sequins, furs, Technicolor satin and gold – preferably all at the same time.
What does she make of the breathtaking attention she has garnered? She loves it. That comes throug
h in the pictures of her – unlike the static, studied poses of other fashion hacks, Dello Russo seems in constant animation, laughing, waving, and generally having a whale of a time in her front-row seat. After all, a woman doesn’t take to the Ungaro catwalk clutching a jewelled sheep grudgingly. For her, this is the achievement of a life-long dream. “I used to be like Cinderella, working hard in the kitchen. Now finally I’ve been invited to the ball.”
It’s uncertain where the cash comes from to fund her obsession – she is uncharacteristically cagey about consultancy work, although rumours abound as to the collections she has a hand in (here’s a hint: look for anything gold). She also asserts that her clothes aren’t gifts but are bought retail – a considerable investment given that just one of those racy Balmain frocks she sported during fashion week would set you back 10 grand, never mind the k cost of that additional apartment. Dello Russo’s reasoning behind such expenditure? “It’s a job, but on me. It’s like going to the dentist – if you go to the dentist and the dentist doesn’t have beautiful white teeth… then how good is he?”
 In a tangential way, her reasoning makes perfect sense. Unlike so many characters in the fashion world, Dello Russo is happy to put her money where her mouth is. Witness her latest editorial for the March issue of Vogue Japan: models giggling in poster paint-bright duchesse satin with tea-sets, lobsters, birds and shoes perched in giant hair-dos (the shoes doubling as a canny bit of product placement – they were Christian Dior). That sounds like just the sort of kooky gear fashion editors love to shovel on to models while dressed in head-to-toe black. Dello Russo, however, sported a variation on her own Christmas card, and in no less than three shoots since. Indeed, you often get the impression that she is practisingher styling on herself, or vice versa.
There’s no emperor’s new clothes to this, though – Dello Russo is perfectly aware of how extreme her look is. “Sometimes I feel ridiculous, but it’s in a good way. Like the watermelon [she wore on her head],I love that. It’s such an Italian touch of humour.”
There is certainly a distinct touch of the Italian eccentric in everything she does. That is, of course, a long tradition: the Marchesa Luisa Casati (see box, right), for example, was an Italian aristo who astonished turn-of-the-century Europe by walking around in a leopard-skin top hat with live marmosets scampering about her outfit as a rather unconventional fur tippet. You can’t help but feel La Casati would have appreciated Dello Russo’s appearance at Paris Vogue’s 90th birthday celebrations last October, a masquerade ball where she pitched up in Emilio Pucci and a one-off Gareth Pugh headpiece looking like a cross between Lady Gagaand the Winged Victory of Samothrace.
Understandably, many also draw comparison with her fellow countrywoman Anna Piaggi: they’re both Italian, they’re both called Anna, they both plonk oversized fruit on their heads and call it a look. They’re also both Condé Nast matriarchs, trained by Vogue Italia – of all the Vogues, the one thatbest marries creativity with commerce.
That’s worth bearing in mind when you look at Anna Dello Russo Inc, the unofficial cottage industry she has spun around her name and image. Her blog is the primary tool in this, engaging her directly with her ever-growing fan-base. “It’s a completely different world from magazines,” she explains. “It’s really democratic. You feel in touch, you feel instantly the feedback.”
Magazines, of course, have realised that the internet is the way to go, but still few editors engage with it on Dello Russo’s grass-roots level. She tweets from the shows to roughly 40,000 followers, and posts continuously to her site. Rather than the polished world of a vogue.com, however, it’s resolutely low-fi, with a touch of Dello Russo’s trademark madcap humour. Witness Anna’s head crudely Photoshopped on to her favourite looks from the latest collections, kitsch gilt photograph frames around images, and Dello Russo’s distinctly nuanced grasp of the English language reflected in every post. “I want to talk with amassive part of the people,” she says. ”I prefer to translate in my English because the sense will be the same. I want to give a sense of myself.” Despite editors becoming personalities in their own right, that’s virtually unheard of in the ivory-tower world of fashion.
It is through the blog that her eponymous perfume came about. “I put on my blog a wish to have a perfume. And then people came to me saying, ‘That’s incredible, I want it, when did it come out?’” Yoox.com obviously saw mileage in the idea – its first range of Dello Russo-branded products – 10 T-shirts bearing her image sporting a self-selected array of “looks” – sold out within hours.
Next up after the perfume, you would assume Dello Russo would be hankering after creating a clothing line – but that’s what everyone would expect, and hence is probably the last thing she’d want to do. Instead, Anna Dello Russo has plans for a record. Fashion-show soundtracks may never be the same again. Source: The Independent

 Die Königin von Mailand

By Marcus Luft

Fashion-Fans auf der ganzen Welt huldigen anna dello russo, der Modejournalistin, Bloggerin, Stil-Ikone. GALA besuchte die Italienerin – und lernte eine Frau mit einer großen Botschaft kennen.

Natürlich ist man ein wenig überrascht, wenn einem Anna dello Russo lediglich in einem UnterkleidchendieTürihres Zimmers im Pariser Hotel „Ritz“öffnet. Ausgerechnet jene Frau, mit der man über ihre flamboyanten Outfits sprechen möchte, trägt zum Interviewquasinichts. „KommenSierein“, begrüßt die Stylistin, Modejournalistin, Stil-Ikone ihren Gast. Ohne High Heels wirkt sie ungewohnt klein und zierlich.
Ihr Händedruck ist zart, das Lachen echt. „Setzen Sie sich doch einfach schon mal aufs Bett. Ich bin beschäftigt. Ich packe.“
„Ich packe“ heißt in diesem Fall: Ihre Assistentin packt. Fünf Tage war dello Russo in Paris, um sich die Schauen anzusehen.

Da kommt einiges an Gepäck zusammen, gerade wenn man so vieleVerpflichtungen hat. Alldie Front-Row-Besuche! Die Cock- tail-Partys! Meetings! Shoppingtouren! Und dievielen Fotografenumsieherum! Nun geht’s zurück nach Mailand – ihreWahlhei- mat, die Modemetropole.
Nach AnnaWintour und Carine Roitfeld istnundie48-jährige„Vogue“-Journalistin die neue Fashion-Ikone der Facebook- Generation. Im Netz gilt die Italienerin als Kultfigur. Jeder ihrer Auftritte wird doku- mentiert und kommentiert. „Ich verdanke dem Internet sehr viel“, sagt dello Russo. „Ich mache meinen Job als Stylistin ja schon lange Jahre, kleide mich schon immer so auf- fällig, aber erst durchs Netz werde ich richtig wahrgenommen. Die Kreationen, die ich trage, bekommen auf dieseWeise ein Leben.“ Um ihre Fans an ihrem Leben teilhaben zu lassen, veröffentlichtsieim Blog www.anna- dellorusso.com mehrmals pro Woche Fotos vonsichselbst. Knapp 100000 Menschen interessiert, was sie unter dem Motto „I don’t want to be cool, I want to be fashion“ zeigt. 100 000 Menschen täglich.  AufdemBodenihresPariserHotelzimmers stehen reihenweise Schuhe. Auf dem Sofa stapeln sich Kleider, viele bereits in Seiden- papier eingeschlagen. Mittendrin wuselt Anna dello Russo barfuß herum. „Meine Kleider sind meine Schätze. Man muss auf sie aufpassen – sie sind doch mit so viel Liebe und Mühe entstanden.“ Auf dem Kamin- sims verwelken opulente Blumensträuße.   

Bestechungsgrüße? „Wissen Sie, ich trage wirklichnurdas,wasmirgefällt. Dasmeiste kaufe ich mir am Anfang der Saison instinktiv. Sicher, ich habe durch meine Arbeit sehr früh einen Überblick über die Kollektionen und weiß genau, was ich tragen möchte. Grund- sätzlich leihe ich mir aber keine Garderobe aus. Ich verliebe mich so schnell in all diese Dinge – ich würde weinen, wenn ich sie dann zurückgeben müsste.“
Leidenschaft für Mode ist der rote Faden im Leben der Anna dello Russo. Als Kind spielte sie zwar mit Puppen wie andere Mäd- chen auch, sah sich aber bald selbst als Barbie. „Vor meinem 11. Geburtstag fragte mich mein Vater, was ich mir wünsche. Ich wollte unbe- dingt einen komplett mit Logos bedruckten Fendi-Regenschirm“, erinnert sie sich. „Ein völlig unnötiges Geschenk. Schließlich bin ich in Süditalien aufgewachsen, wo es fast nie regnet.Aber meinVater verstand mich.“ Glücklich spazierte sie an ihrem Ehrentag bei strahlendem Sonnenschein mit einem Fendi-Schirm über die Strandpromenade von Bari. „Leicht war diese Zeit natürlich nicht für mich. Ich war unter Gleichalt-rigendie verrückte Außenseiterin.“

WennmandieseGeschichtenhört, versteht man, warum Anna dello Russo die Zuneigung so wichtig ist, die sie heute weltweit erfährt. Endlich wird sie ernst genommen. Man be- gegnet ihr mit Respekt und Bewun- derung. Und sie kann allen Teenagern eine Botschaft übermitteln: „Traut euch! Mode macht Spaß. Das merkt ihr, wenn ihr es ausprobiert.“ Zum Spaß am Schönen kam für Anna dello Russo immer auch die Neugier auf Fakten. Deshalb studierte sie Kunstgeschichte. Danach arbeitete sie bei „Vogue Italia“, wurde Chef- redakteurin der italienischen Männer- „Vogue“. Seit fünf Jahren ist sie Modechefin der japanischen „Vogue“.
WasdieBrancheanihrschätzt,istinsbe- sondere ihr klarer Blick. Über Kollegen sagt sie: „Viele nehmen sich zu wichtig und glau- ben, dass eine Kollektion dann gut ist, wenn sie einem selbst gefällt. Doch darum geht es überhaupt nicht. Meine Aufgabe ist es, zu beurteilen, ob das Gezeigte zur Marke passt und ob sich der Designer weiterentwickelt hat.“  Niemals würde sie schlecht über eine Kollektion sprechen. „Wenn ich ein Label nicht gut finde, gehe ich nicht zu dessen Show. Dennoch hat jeder Designer
Respekt verdient.“ Nur zweimal pro Saison muss sie nachTokio, in ihre Redaktion. Die restliche Zeit lebt sie in Mailand „ein völlig normales Leben“.Völlig normal?

„Natürlich!“ Sie schlägt vor, dass man sich das nächste Mal in Mailand treffen sollte. „Dann lernen Sie auch meinen Hund Cucciolina kennen. Lassen Sie uns zusammen Gassi gehen!“
Einen Monat später. Eine kleine Straße in der Nähe von Mailands legendärem Con- cept-Store „Corso Como“. Anna dello Russo steht mitWollmütze, engen Jeans, Biker- Boots, einem schlichten Kaschmirpulli und einem dicken Mantel vor derTür eines Mehrfamilienhauses. Cucciolina fröstelt und bockt. Statt Park istWohnung angesagt. Schnell rein! Gleich im Flur Unmengen

von Büchern, imWohnzimmer eine riesen- große Samtcouch. Anna dello Russo zieht ihre Stiefel aus – und erzählt von einem ganz normalen Tag in Mailand. „Morgens gehe ich schwimmen.Wasser reinigt die Seele. AußerdemmacheichYogaundspielemit meinemLiebling.“Deristgeradedabei,ein Samtkissenzuzerstören. „Waswillman HeelstehtnebenGeschirrausihrer Ihr privates Reich
Auch beim Interior Design bleibt Anna dello Russo sich treu: Alles ist opulent, fantasievoll, oft glitzernd. Ganz in der Nähe klassischer Silberrahmen dekoriert sie eine Leo-Lady; ein farbenfroher High machen?“, sagt sie und weist Cucciolina an, dem Signore aus Germania Frauchens Ankleidezimmer zu z
eigen.
Alles im begehbaren Kleiderschrank ist sortiert. Pullover, Jacken, sogar Strumpf- hosen liegen akkurat in den Regalen. Dello Russo: „Kunst oder Bücher werden doch auf die gleiche Art aufbewahrt. Auch ich sehemich als Sammlerin und Kuratorin.“ Und sie schiebt nach: „Aber das hier ist ja nur die aktuelle Saison. Lassen sie uns mal nach nebenan in mein Spielzimmer gehen.“ „Nebenan“ ist ihre Zweitwohnung. Kron- leuchter, Duftkerzen und eine Fototapete mit einer Szene ausViscontis Filmklassiker „Der Leopard“ sorgen für Opulenz. Hier werden die prachtvollsten Kleider, Hosen- anzüge, Hüte und etwa 800 Paar Schuhe archiviert. In einer goldenenVitrine funkeln antike Schmuckstücke. Bunte Haarspangen sind auf einem Samtkissen drapiert.
Anna dello Russo weiß exakt, wo welches Kleidungsstück hängt. Zu jedemTeil kennt sie eine Geschichte, Respekt schwingt in jedem Satz mit. Bei ihr bekommt die manchmal ober- flächliche Mode etwasTiefgründiges:Aus Fast Food wird ein Gourmet-Menü. Selbst Cucciolina flitzt nun nicht mehr durch die Zimmer. Sie hat es sich auf einem Fellteppich bequem gemacht und seufzt zufrieden.
Source: Gala Germany

Die Sammlerin

Bari, ein Hochsommer irgendwann in den siebziger Jahren, geregnet hat es schon monatelang nicht mehr. Ein kleines, dünnes Mädchen schlendert die Strandpromenade entlang. Die Leute schauen sich nach ihm um. Stolz hält es einen Regenschirm von Fendi in der Hand, benutzt ihn als Spazierstock. Es hat lange gedauert, den Vater vom Kauf des teuren, in Süditalien ziemlich nutzlosen Luxusschirmchens zu überzeugen, doch wenn es um Mode ging, legte Anna dello Russo schon damals einen gewissen Fanatismus an den Tag.

Vierzig Jahre später reißt sie in ihrem Mailänder Apartment eine Schublade nach der anderen auf. »Hier – Handtaschen, Gürtel, Strumpfhosen, Schals und Badeanzüge!«, ruft sie, eine schmale Frau mit leuchtend grünen Augen, blassen Lippen und Fältchen im Gesicht. Dann schiebt Anna dello Russo eine deckenhohe Schranktür zur Seite und streichelt zärtlich über Abendroben. »Hier schwarze lange Kleider und hier…«, die nächste Schranktür gleitet zur Seite, »…meine Anzüge«. Doch die Schränke ihres im Leopardenlook gehaltenen Schlafzimmers reichen schon lange nicht mehr aus, um all ihre Trophäen zu fassen. Das Nachbarapartment musste dazugemietet werden. Eine Stahlplatte sichert die Eingangstür gegen Einbruch, denn die Stücke sind viele Hunderttausend Euro wert.

»Mein Spielzimmer« nennt dello Russo diese Extrawohnung, in der sie über 800 Paar Schuhe, jede Menge Designerkleidung und Vitrinen voller Modeschmuck aufbewahrt, die sie über viele Jahre hinweg zusammengekauft hat. Zurzeit nutzt sie das alles noch für ihre Arbeit als Stylistin, doch irgendwann will sie eine Stiftung gründen, um die Stücke öffentlich zugänglich zu machen. Dello Russo sammelt Designerkleidung mit Leidenschaft, Sachverstand und Akribie wie andere Menschen Kunst. Über die Fülle ihrer Sammlung kann sie so begeistert staunen, als sähe sie das alles zum ersten Mal.

Sie steht in einem Raum, der mit einem vergrößerten Standbild aus Viscontis Film Der Leopard tapeziert ist – es zeigt einen historischen Salon aus dem sizilianischen Palazzo Gangi. Davor stehen Barockstühle, antike Kerzenleuchter und Kommoden auf dunklem Parkettboden. Aus einer Bodenvase quillt eine Federboa. Vorsichtig rückt dello Russo eine Lieblingsbrosche in der Glasvitrine zurecht und freut sich über eine Filzhandtasche in Form eines Lebkuchenhauses, die sie in Peru gekauft hat.

Dann bleibt sie vor einem Bücherregal stehen, in dem Bildbände, Modefotos, Madonnenfiguren, Barbiepuppenzubehör und alle möglichen Miniaturen ausgestellt sind, und greift nach einem goldenen Parfumflakon, der die Form eines altmodischen Schuhs hat. Das Parfum hat dello Russo kürzlich auf den Markt gebracht, den Flakon hat sie – in Anspielung auf das Märchen vom Aschenputtel – selbst gestaltet. Sie sagt: »Wie bei Aschenputtel hat es auch bei mir lange gedauert, bis ich endlich meinen großen Auftritt hatte.

Anna dello Russo ist 48 Jahre alt und hat lange Zeit als Vogue- Redakteurin gearbeitet, ohne dass ein größeres Publikum auf sie aufmerksam geworden wäre. Doch seit Mode-Blogger in aller Welt sich für die individuellen Outfits von Stylisten interessieren und diese in Schnappschüssen auf ihren Seiten dokumentieren, seit namentlich Über-Blogger Scott Schuman für seine Website The Sartorialist Modeleute auf der Straße ablichtet, ist dello Russo eine globale Stil-Ikone geworden.

Auf den Modenschauen in Paris oder Mailand drängeln sich Blogger vor den Eingangstüren, um mit Handy oder Digitalkamera ein Bild der Italienerin zu ergattern, die bekannt dafür ist, bereits am Vormittag prächtige Abendroben zu tragen und durch kühne Accessoires, kräftige Farben und spektakuläre Formen auf sich aufmerksam zu machen.

Dello Russo ist eine der letzten großen Exzentrikerinnen der Modebranche. Dabei präsentiert sie auch das schrillste Outfit so selbstbewusst und nonchalant, als sei es völlig alltäglich. Sie produziert sich nicht als geltungssüchtiges Ego, sondern präsentiert die Kleidung mit dem Eifer der Sammlerin. Zudem verwendet sie kaum Make-up und widmet ihren Haaren wenig Aufmerksamkeit. »Mein Gesicht ist nicht besonders sehenswert«, sagt sie. »

Die Leute sollen lieber auf meine Kleider achten.«
So viel ungeschminkte Ehrlichkeit ist selten in der Modebranche und verstärkt dello Russos Popularität im Netz. Mode-Blogs sind als Gegenreaktion auf Hochglanzmagazine entstanden und zeugen vom Überdruss an einer extrem künstlichen Welt, die durch Retusche und Bildbearbeitung immer unnahbarer geworden ist. In all ihrer Exzentrik täuscht dello Russo nichts vor – sie macht vielmehr die Künstlichkeit ihrer ständigen Verwandlungen nachvollziehbar und bleibt als Persönlichkeit erkennbar. »Ich verstelle mich beim Bloggen nicht und nehme mich selbst nicht so ernst, vielleicht habe ich deshalb Erfolg«, sagt sie.

Als im Netz immer mehr Bilder von ihr in Umlauf kamen, begann dello Russo aus ihrer Popularität Kapital zu schlagen und ihren Namen zur Marke auszubauen. Erst gründete sie eine Website, später lancierte sie eine T-Shirt-Serie und ihr Parfum. Auf ihrer Seite meldet sie sich seit fast einem Jahr vier- bis fünfmal pro Woche zu Wort. Sie zeigt Fotos von aktuellen Modenschauen oder von Gegenständen aus ihrer Privatsammlung, und sie verfasst Listen, auf denen sie nicht immer ernst gemeinte Tipps gibt,

etwa für Modenschauen (»Zieh ein Outfit nur ein einziges Mal an!«) oder für Empfänge (»Trink oder iss nichts, das sieht unvorteilhaft aus!«). Gelegentlich tauscht sie die Gesichter auf Laufstegfotos auch gegen ihr eigenes aus, was ihr den Anschein einer Anziehpuppe verleiht. Ein bisschen wirkt dello Russo auf ihrer Website wie ein großes Kind, das Verkleiden spielt, und zugleich so nah und zugänglich wie eine gute Freundin, mit der man herumalbern und sich über einen besonders schönen Fund freuen kann. Jedem ihrer Einträge merkt man an, dass sie selbst den größten Spaß an der Sache hat.

Mailand an einem Freitag Ende Januar. Eben hat Anna dello Russo ihre tägliche Morgenroutine aus zweieinhalb Stunden Yoga und Schwimmen absolviert, jetzt steuert sie ihren roten Smart durch den dichten Vormittagsverkehr. Auf ihrem Schoß hat sich ihr Pinscher Ciccolina eingerollt. Anders, als ihr Ruf es erwarten lässt, trägt dello Russo diesmal kein auffallendes Abendkleid, sondern eine graue Jogginghose, einen grauen Kaschmirpullover, Nike-Air-Schuhe und einen Parka. Sie ist unterwegs zu einem Shooting, bei dem sie selbst modelt.

»Für mich ist Mode eine Art Lebenssinn. Ich hatte von klein auf den Ehrgeiz, alles darüber zu wissen. Ich träumte davon, die Schönheit der ganzen Welt kennenzulernen«, sagt sie, eine Hand am Steuer, die andere kraulend an Ciccolinas Hals. Dauernd habe sie sich verkleidet und sich in ihre Fantasiewelt zurückgezogen. Ihr Vorbild war damals Pippi Langstrumpf. »Ich liebte dieses unangepasste Mädchen, das schon mit neun Jahren völlig unabhängig war, jede Menge Energie hatte und andere Kinder immer zum Lachen brachte.

Wenn man so will, ist dello Russo im Laufe der Jahre ihrem Ideal Pippi sehr nahe gekommen: Auch sie gilt als Nonkonformistin, lebt allein (zwar ohne Pferd oder Affe, dafür mit einem Hund) und bringt andere zum Lachen. »Ich weiß, ich bin ein bisschen sonderbar, denn wer wohnt schon in zwei Apartments voller Klamotten. Aber ich finde, es ist ein Privileg, sein Leben völlig der Mode zu widmen.« Dass dieses Leben seinen Preis hat, ist
ihr bewusst: »Das geht nur, wenn man keine Kinder hat.

Damals, in den siebziger Jahren in dello Russos süditalienischer Heimat, galt ihr Lebensentwurf als ziemlich radikaler und männlicher Standpunkt. Doch sie ließ sich nicht davon abbringen. Nach einem Studium der Kunstgeschichte absolvierte sie die Mailänder Modeschule Domus, anschließend bekam sie eine Stelle als Moderedakteurin bei der italienischen Vogue. Im Jahr 2000 wurde sie zur Chefredakteurin der Uomo Vogue befördert, sechs Jahre später wechselte sie zur japanischen Vogue als editor-at-large – eine Art Beratungstätigkeit, für die sie höchstens zweimal im Jahr nach Tokyo reist. Zusätzlich verdient sie viel Geld als Consultant verschiedener Modefirmen.

Ästhetisch gesehen, ist dello Russo ein Kind der achtziger Jahre. Ihr Bewusstsein für Mode wurde in den Boomjahren von Marken wie Armani, Versace und Gucci geprägt. Die Logo-Manie von damals, das Protzige und Überladene haben ihren Stil nachhaltig geprägt. »Ich mag Marken, Schmuck und klare Aussagen«, sagt dello Russo. Ihr Respekt vor der Leistung von Designern ist so groß, dass sie deren Entwürfe am liebsten genauso trägt, wie sie auf dem Laufsteg gezeigt wurden.

Zum Termin im Fotostudio bringt sie ein Tablett mit Schmuckstücken aus ihrer Privatsammlung mit – darunter ein Haarreif, auf dem riesige Orangenscheiben aus Plastik befestigt sind. Auf einer Kleiderstange hängen sieben Pucci-Modelle in Größe 36, die so delikat gearbeitet und schmal geschnitten sind, dass man einen Moment lang fürchtet, die fast 50-jährige Frau werde sich darin womöglich lächerlich machen. Doch dello Russo, yogagestählt und knochig, flitzt unbefangen im Stringtanga durch das Studio und schlüpft mühelos in die Kleidchen.

Auch vor der Kamera bewegt sie sich so unangestrengt und zwanglos, als hätte sie das Posieren professionell gelernt. Zugleich karikiert sie ihre eigene Erscheinung, indem sie eine übergroße Sonnenbrille aufsetzt, sich einen riesigen Kamm in die Haare steckt und darüber ein Spitzentuch legt, wie es im Süden immer noch manche Frauen in der Kirche tragen. Am Ende wirkt dello Russo wie eine durchgeknallte Mafia-Braut – und damit auch wirklich klar wird, dass dieses Shooting in erster Linie ein großer Ulk ist, lässt sie sich für das letzte Bild aus zwei seitlich befestigten Perücken eine monströse Haarmähne basteln, auf der sie ein kleines Spielzeugschloss balanciert.

Am Abend, als alle sieben Outfits fotografiert sind, steigt dello Russo wieder in Jogginghose und Parka in den Smart, nur ihre knallrot lackierten Fingernägel zeugen noch von der vorübergehenden Verwandlung in einen skurrilen Vamp. Das anstehende Wochenende wird sie nutzen, um Yoga zu machen und mit dem Hund in den Park zu gehen. »I have to work on my soul«, sagt sie, »ich muss einen klaren Kopf bekommen, bevor nächste Woche die Haute-Couture-Schauen in Paris beginnen.« Aschenputtel haushaltet gewissenhaft mit seinen Kräften. Wer weiß, wie lange man es auf der großen Party noch mittanzen lässt.

Photo Credit: Juergen TellerFashion Credit: Jil Sander S/S 2011Alan Journo hatCarlo Zini bijouxSource: ZEIT

interview by Yorca Schmidt-JunkerPhoto credit: shoothebreeze QVeST: anna, you are one of the most highly reputed stylists in the world as well as editor at large for voGue Japan. Why did you decide to start a web career as well?
anna deLLo rUSSo: i started my blog in march 2010. the reason was that i felt there was a revolution going on, the power of a new medium was arising. All the blogging icons such as scott, tommy ton and Garance, whom i happened to know over the years, created a new language, they opened a new space to think, write about and discuss fashion. because i love fashion it was the right time to jump in and join the community, to be in touch with the new generation and to share my passion with them.
 How was it in the beginning?
well, it was not easy at all. i really had to force myself in the beginning, because it was hard to deal with a new medium, which was totally different from the world i came from. my knowledge was all about magazines and i had this typical edi- torial point of view – but the web with its very sudden, very spontaneous impact was a real challenge for me. At the same time i wanted to add my knowledge and establish a certain »luxury« state of mind. then i tried to mix together all these demands that i had – and so i found my way, and also had a lot of fun.
Talking of fun, many of your blogger colleagues admit that for them their blog is a tool to get real, that is paid, jobs as photographers, stylists, consultants, etc. Because you already had a career before, I guess you are one of the rare examples of those who use the blog more as a play- ground …?
yes, that’s correct. for me it is not the way to earn a living, but a playground, as you said. fortunately, i have a fantastic job which is sometimes very hard, always being on duty. so the blog is my compensation, a tool to share my passion, to express my freedom, my personal point of view, which does not have to match the condé nast one. so i am free, having lots of fun without any rules or restrictions. that does not mean that i don’t take it seriously. let’s just say it is playing, but with the same serious approach that normally defines my profession as an editor.
did you ever face problems with your publishing companybecause of your blog? no conflict of interests?
Absolutely not! thank God, Jonathan newhouse (chairman of condé nast) is one of the smartest and most generous people i’ve ever met. he loves my blog and gives me the freedom to cherish it. there cannot be any conflict because i still talk about fashion, i take the same professional approach, but i’m more passionate. Also my blog is part of the condé nast blog in Japan, which proves the compatibility of both careers.
But let’s face it, apart from passion and fun, a blog is always a stage for unrestrained self-marketing. Which means a perfect tool to raise your personal market value …
of course you also start a blog to promote yourself, that’s what my followers expect from me and my colleagues. the commu- nity wants to know details about me and my craze for fashion. they want to see my outfits, to know where i got them from – so i have to feed them with images and comments. my task is to talk about my personal style, my personal shopping, my fashion philosophy in a smart, original way. that’s why i started this Adr thing, playing with my initials and by means of that not just creating a new, personal language but also establishing sort of a virtual brand. A brand which stands for fun and joy,not for profit.
This adr thing led to the launch of your first perfume. Is that really not a profit thing?!
that was a real challenge, a sort of experiment. it has been proven that it is possible to build a brand without any money or a big campaign. it was a little bit like in that movie »the social network«, where this kid (mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook) invented something just because of a simple desire, a naive wish – and it became a huge thing. in a cool, smart, passionate way, not money-driven. i found the perfect partner for this perfume experiment in the online store yoox.com which sells the perfume right now. it’s not expensive though, because our aim is not to make big money, but to show that you can achieve anything if you really go for it. And that the internet offers us a lot of chances. new chances which you have to recog- nize.
The look of your blog is very joyful and loving, yet a little trashy with all the flower frames, the cartoons and tacky details.Does that reflect the typical anna style?
i really love both: luxury and trash. i love cheap and chic, tackyandtrashy,coutureandhigh-endstuff.soihaveavery contradictory point of view, which for me is the true meaning of style. if you see my house for example, it’s completely baroque, really tacky and over the top. there is a lot of gold and things that spread an excessive appeal. i simply like this style, and even more i like the irony behind it. i never take things too seriously, there must always be a humorous back- ground. to be honest, things that are mainly chic are some- times really boring; so i prefer things and looks with a certain blemish, a touch of vulgarity, mess and trash to make fashion more fun. my point of view is a little provocative, but on the other hand it is free and independent. i like to play as much as i can with all aspects of my personality, mixing all kinds of styles, using all the possibilities that life offers me. And my blog reflects that. it’s like a kid’s approach: kids cannot really explain why they like something, they simply like it – basta! it’s a very authentic, honest feeling that comes from the heart. Also they do not think about or categorize what’s good or tasteful, they simply go for it. One of your blog resolutions for 2011 is to expand the web sphere. Why do you think the web is so important,especially in terms of fashion?
because it is the platform for communicating with the new generation in a straightforward and immediate way. not just in terms of fashion but generally. the problem with magazines is – apart from the fact that there are too many of them – that they do not get in touch with the young people, who long for a direct exchange. they have grown up with the internet and with social networking and if you want to stay in touch with them you have to chose other ways. Also, fashion has become too self-referential, a thing locked inside editorial cages. it was time for a break, for a liberation. with the blog i can feel the audience, i get instant feedback – that’s what i appreciate very much. Do you think that fashion will move away fromthe magazines and shift to the web totally?no, the world offers space for both. but with the revolution the internet has caused, the print media, which includes us as edi- tors, will reset and have to work out new strategies to match the market situation. which also means cleaning up the mar- ket. it’s a fact that there are too many publications,let’s just face it.
But the web is suffering from the same thing right now – too many web magazines, too many blogs …
well, it’s the time for blogs right now. After 10 years of a subtle built-up, the scene is exp
loding. that’s what always happens. once a thing has become a success, everybody wants to be part of it. but i think that in a few years, many of them will be gone, both because of a natural shakeout and because some bloggers will have chosen other careers.
Coming back to the legendary anna style: you are not ashamed to wear helmets, water melon hats and outfits that are – with all due respect – a bit carnivalesque and completely over the top.In your opinion, can a style ever be overdone?
i am a true fashion maniac, i can tell you. i was born like that.
since i was a child i loved clothes and plundered the wardrobe of my mother. Also i styled my barbies to death – which was easy because they could not defend themselves (laughs). After i became a stylist and people got to know me, they – especial- ly the english ones – asked, »why are you so overdone?« i just answered, »why not?!«. why should you go out wearing boring outfits if clothes give you so many opportunities to express yourself? i come from the south of italy where every woman dresses up when she goes out. so it’s part of my culture, i have no problem being overdone. i don’t know any style limits or restrictions – i love the preparation, the idea of dressing up, the moment of choosing and composing my outfit – it is like a ritual, i simply enjoy it.
I read that you prefer full looks, which means you do not mix labels, but instead stick to one designer?
Absolutely, i like the looks from the catwalk, so i adopt them straight away. to me, they are already the peak of beauty, so i don’t have to do an extra job by mixing them with other pieces or with other labels. it’s just perfect the way it is.
How do you afford this craze?I heard you buy nearly all the clothes yourself …
well, you better not ask! i am a real big spender in terms of fashion, i always was. i don’t have kids, i don’t have a family, so all my money went and still goes to the designer’s shops. of course sometimes they lend me pieces, but most of the outfits i’ve worn belong to me. that’s why i had to rentan extra apart- ment just for my clothes!
We hope that your dog Cucciolina still gets enough to eat, if you spend all your money on clothes?
(laughs) don’t worry, she is fine. And because she is small and therefore doesn’t need tons of food i should always be able to afford to feed her!
Source: QVEST

Photo Credit: Alex Sarginson Interview: Corrie Jackson Source: Glamour Uk

Francesco Scognamiglio S/S 2011

Mary Katrantzou S/S 2011

Mary Katrantzou S/S 2011

Givenchy F/W 2010

Mich Dulce hat

Worth Couture F/W 2010

Valentino F/W 2010

Givenchy F/W 2010

Photo Credit: Matteo MontanariSource: Lurve Magazinewww.larevolution.it

Da giornalista di moda a icona fashion: Anna Dello Russo, grazie ai suoi incredibili look, oggi è più fotografata di attrici e popstar. Siamo stati a casa sua e… è stato come fare un giro nel Paese delle meraviglie:un mix eccentrico che rispecchia il suo stile
 Eravamo in attesa della sua collezione prêt-à-porter. Niente da fare: Anna Dello Russo non fa mai quello che ci si aspetta. È stata redattrice di Vogue Italia e successivamente direttrice di L’Uomo Vogue.È fashion director e consulente creativa di Vogue Giappone e blogger.Ora l’eccentrica giornalista di moda ha lanciato il suo profumo, Anna Dello Russo, una fragranza dolce in un flacone glamour (una scarpetta tutta d’oro) in vendita esclusivamente su Yoox.com.Motivo in più per andarla a trovare a Milano e scoprire, così, i suoi due appartamenti: quello in cui vive e quello dedicato unicamente alla sua impressionante collezione di vestiti.
Un po’ come Alice nel Paese delle meraviglie, l’eccentrica icona fashion ci apre le porte della sua casa in stile barocco: un sapiente mix di bric-à-brac, immagini sacre e fotografie d’autore. L’avrà creata a sua immagine e somiglianza? Difficile a dirsi, perché questa donna camaleontica cambia continuamente look, alla velocità della luce. Schizofrenica? Sì, è proprio lei che lo dice.
Come mai ha deciso di lanciare un profumo, quando tuttisi aspettavano una linea di abbigliamento?
«Sinceramente mi sembrava un tantino ambizioso. Sono talmente rispettosa del lavoro degli stilisti, che non mi sono sentita all’altezza. La mia idea, invece, era quella di creare un oggetto pop, che fosse alla portata di tutti».
La boccetta ha la forma di una scarpina dorata:un omaggio alle sue 4.000 paia di scarpe?
«Non proprio. La mia musa è stata Cenerentola. Le fiabe mi hanno sempre affascinato. Ho tantissimi oggetti kitsch sulla libreria: mi aiutano a trovare l’ispirazione ed è stato proprio uno di questi, una pantofola, che mi ha dato l’idea per la forma del flacone. Le note della fragranza sono quelle della vaniglia e della mandorla, che mi ricordano il profumo rassicurante dei biscotti che mio nonno preparava per le feste. E quando il flacone è vuoto, lo si può usare come decoro, magari da appendere sull’albero di Natale!».
È sorprendente: una fan del lusso come lei ha creato un gadget?
«Sono la contraddizione fatta persona: amo sia il trash sia lo chic. Il mio unico limite sono l’ordinario e il conformismo. Non avevo alcuna intenzione di creare qualcosa di elitario; al contrario, ciòche mi stimola maggiormente è il cambiamento».
È per questo che è così appassionata di internet?
«Sì, è un mezzo di comunicazione geniale, che permette di entrare in contatto con un gran numero di persone e che, soprattutto, ha contribuito a rinnovare l’ambiente della moda. Il fenomeno della blogosfera è esploso cinque anni fa e prima di allora la moda assomigliava a una conchiglia carina, ma vuota. Il web ha stravolto tutto e ha fatto sì che le culture si mescolassero tra loro. È uno spazio di libertà vero, in cui ci si può esprimere in tutta franchezza».
Non è così che funziona anche a “Vogue”?
«È diverso. Vogue è un’impresa, in cui ciascuno devemantenere il proprio ruolo».
A 48 anni, lei è la redattrice di moda più fotografata alle sfilate, ha calcato la passerella per Ungaro ed è la testimonial del suo profumo:si sta riciclando come modella?
«Mi diverte. D’altronde è una bella rivincita per me, che per anni ho vestito le più famose top model, e uno sberleffo a questa corsa alla giovinezza».
Durante le settimane della moda, la si può vederecon tre completi diversi al giorno. Come fa?
«In realtà è un’impresa titanica e mi preparo come se fosse un servizio fotografico. Comincio a cercare i vestiti e a deciderequale indossare con almeno sei mesi d’anticipo».
 E quale soluzione adotta per evitare l’eccedenza di bagaglio?
«FedEx (una società internazionale di spedizioni, ndr):credo di essere la loro migliore cliente».
Il suo look oggi è molto femminile, ma non è stato sempre così…
«Trascinare i bagagli, passare da un aereo all’altro, vestire le indossatrici… Prima lavoravo come una forsennata e, per comodità, avevo adottato una divisa androgina: scarpe basse, pantaloni larghi, giacca nera di Yohji Yamamoto, il tutto accompagnato da un atteggiamento severo e chiuso. Quel tempo è finito. Oggi sono più dolce e divertente. Una donna diversa».
Che cosa ha dato il via a questo cambiamento?
«Lo yoga, che ho iniziato a praticare dieci anni fa. Uno degli insegnamenti di questa disciplina si regge proprio sul concetto di agilità e flessibilità. Si tratta di cambiare continuamente e adattarsi alle diverse situazioni.Rigidità vuol dire ignoranza».
Perché lo yoga?
«Avevo bisogno di qualcosa di nuovo, ero alla ricerca di un senso. Per me è diventata una vera disciplina: la pratico tutte le mattine per più di un’ora e ogni anno trascorro 15 giorni in India, dove seguo un corso con un insegnante. Il mio sogno è quello di diventare insegnante a mia volta. Una guru. Una fashion guru!» (ride).
Come si passa dalla moda allo yoga, due mondi che sono,almeno all’apparenza, completamente opposti?
«Prima ero una maniaca del controllo e il mio unico pensiero era quello di avere una totale padronanza della mia vita. A forza di respirazione e meditazione, lo yoga mi ha insegnato ad allentare la presa e ad accettare il mio inconscio. Il risultato è che ormai mi fido di quella parte “fuori controllo” di me stessa».
Il che vuol dire?
«Non ho più paura di osare. Questo è, d’altronde, un consiglio che rivolgo a tutti: siate audaci. La moda è un’espressione di sé che non bisognacercare di frenare a ogni costo. Azzardate l’inaspettato».
Non ha mai la sensazione di aver osato troppo?
«Sempre, ma adoro questo lato di me. Sono come un’atleta alle Olimpiadi: amo oltrepassare i limiti. Cadere nel ridicolo fa parte del rischio. Ma ciò che è veramente ridicolo è non osare mai».
 Photo Credit: Eva Sakellarides Interview: Caroline Hamelle Source: Grazia

“Daywear is not my thing…”
Anna Dello Russo has beenthe fashion phenomenon of 2010.Cat Callender meets her – and her wardrobe -at home in Milan.

ADR wearing Francesco Scognamiglio and Sergio Rossi boots  Photo: JONATHAN FRANTINI

Anna Dello Russo never looks anything less than magnificent. Even on the loo. Which is where she is perched for this interview.She’s wearing an inky-black, sheer lace evening dress, thigh-high leather boots and a dramatic Philip Treacy feather plume headpiece. It’s not even 11am. But then the Italian-born Dello Russo thinks nothing of wearing Worth couture at breakfast, a gold brocade Rocha jumpsuit to a 2pm fashion show anda sequinned Balmain minidress for afternoon tea.
ADR, as she’s fondly known in the industry, is the maximalist fashion director of Japanese Vogue , the larger-than-life
At the bi-annual fashion shows she is mobbed film star-style by television crews and packs of photographers. Her blog receives 20,000 daily visitors who hang off her every accessory. Since September alone she has graced fashion magazine covers and modelled both in Paris for Giles Deacon’s debut show for Emanuel Ungaro and in New York at the personal invitation of Alber Elbaz for the grand launch of Lanvin for H&M.
Perhaps more importantly, Dello Russo isn’t some young hipster. She’s a 47-year-old woman who looks her age and fantastic to boot. ‘It just seems to have gone crazy, no?’ she says in a thick Italian accent as we continue to chat in her bathroom while she changes outfit. ‘Why, I don’t really understand… But I love it.’ She’s right. It’s hard to explain 
why what she wears has created a media frenzy and makes such compelling viewing. But it has and does.
Prior to her current incarnation, Dello Russo spent 25 years working under the radar as a fashion editor at Italian Vogue , then as editor of L’Uomo Vogue . In 2006 she moved to Japanese Vogue and in February this year launched her blog. She’s worked with all the big-name fashion photographers (Helmut Newton, Patrick Demarchelier, Mario Testino), dressed many of the most enduring style icons of our age (Catherine Deneuve, Sophia Loren, Chloë Sevigny) and helped create some of the most sexually ambiguous celebrity portraits ever (David Beckham in jeans and no top, Brad Pitt in full gladiator garb). She’s also been a consultant to several Italian fashion labels and helped make them the megabrands they are today.
Her fashion credentials are impeccable. Still, Dello Russo prefers the focus to be on what she wears rather than the anonymous work she does behind the scenes. According to Tommy Ton of the popular Jak + Jil blog, which charts what the magazine stylists and editors wear to the shows, Dello Russo’s outfits are likely to have more impact than anything seen on the runway or in the pages of a magazine. ‘Thanks to the blogosphere fashion has become more public,’ explains Ton. ‘Whereas in the past the icons of the industry were models and designers, today editors are the new fashion icons.’
Even so, you might be forgiven for dismissing Dello Russo’s role as an online fashion Barbie as some ego-driven vanity project. Not that she sees it that way, of course. ‘My priority is the amazing impact of the dress. Not about showing 
me off. I don’t care how I look.’ Aware that she is at risk of sounding disingenuous, Dello Russo points out that she sports a low-maintenance shaggy mane and rarely wears make-up. ‘I don’t understand when a photographer asks to do a close-up shot. Who wants to look at my face? It’s about the fashion.’
Such disarming honesty is part of Dello Russo’s charm. Beneath the Lady Gaga get-ups is someone easy-going, effusive and bright. She chuckles readily and heartily. Although she has the laughter lines to match, she hasn’t ever been tempted to have plastic surgery. ‘Ma, non! I don’t believe women should be obsessed with youthfulness.’
She might be pushing 50 but her whipcord-thin figure is as toned as that of Elastigirl in The Incredibles , the result of ashtanga yoga, which she gets up at 5am every day to practise for three hours.
After Dello Russo the most photographed editors at the shows are American Vogue ‘s Anna Wintour, 61, and Carine Roitfeld, 56, of French Vogue . All three are old enough to be tempted to lie about their age. All are immensely powerful, dynamic and stylish women: fashion’s new role models if you like. The only difference with Dello Russo is that there’s no stony-faced seriousness. She’s all toothy smiles and kid-in-the-candy-store vitality.
‘She doesn’t hide her age,’ says Sophia Neophitou, the creative/fashion director of Harper’s Bazaar , which put Dello Russo on the cover of its 10th-anniversary edition recently. She believes there is something both inspirational and attainable about what Dello Russo does. Although she wears only outfits that appeared in the catwalk shows (which few would have the budget for) the fact is they are worn in everyday situations, without hair and make-up and by a woman in her late forties.
‘I wanted our readers to see that at a certain age you don’t have to be pigeonholed or subscribe to some prescriptive way of dressing or looking,’ says Neophitou. ‘Fashion isn’t just about being young anymore.’ 

Dress by Jil Sander  Photo: JONATHAN FRANTINI

Three months
before the next round of shows kicks off in New York Dello Russo is already planning her wardrobe. As she will appear in at least 100 ‘looks’ over four weeks, sometimes changing two to three times a day (pouring herself into her creations in the back of her chauffeured car), this fashion marathon requires obsessional plotting. ‘It’s like I’m prepping for a fashion shoot that is going to be outside at the collections,’ she purrs. ‘It’s my first editorial of the season and I am the model!’
That is why she is flicking through the rails of crystal-encrusted, leopard-print and jet-beaded evening wear in her ‘new season’ walk-in wardrobe. It is one of several, double-height rooms dedicated to her fashion collection. Somewhat idiosyncratically, this spans two neighbouring apartments in a mansion block in Milan. Apartment One is also Dello Russo’s living quarters (Roberto Cavalli leopard-print wallpaper in the bedroom, fin de siècle furniture in the drawing-room, a Chanel doormat with interlocking Cs in the hall). Once the season ends everything is archived in Apartment Two 
or a huge basement.
If the clothes are not new, they’re not on her radar. ‘I hate vintage. I don’t like the smell, the dust; I don’t like the old clothes,’ she says, clearly seeing a distinction between her archive of catwalk pieces and run-of-the-mill vintage. ‘I like the brand-new stuff. I grew up in the 1980s and was obsessed with Versace and Armani. I was so spoilt. I like statement. I like to show off. I like monograms. I like brands.’
Apartment Two is an even more ornate affair with 19th-century display cabinets throughout and blown-up photographs of the interiors of the Palazzo Gangi in Palermo, the location for the Visconti film The Leopard , plastering the walls. It’s the perfect baroque backdrop for her archive: 4,000 pairs of shoes, 250 black tuxedos and more embellished blouses, jewels, opulent gowns, dramatic headpieces and opera coats than she can count. Space restrictions aside, the reason the archive is kept separate is temperature: to preserve the clothes the rooms remain at a constant 15 degrees centigrade.
‘La-la! Christmas tree!’ trills Dello Russo, striking a dramatic pose. She’s whipped off her black cocktail number and is now sporting a floral-print Jil Sander kaftan, chandelier earrings, fringed, fuchsia Christian Louboutin heels, clanking bracelets and not one but two clutch bags. Every outfit is assembled to create maximum impact. That’s why she only wears clothes she has never been seen in before.
Would she ever wear anything normal, I venture, pointing to my navy cardigan and black trousers? Dello Russo seems affronted. ”Non! Daywear is not my kinda thing. Now that I am collecting all these big, strong pieces, I thought why I need the daywear?’
The head-to-toe catwalk look Dello Russo favours shows a rather old-school approach to styling. Now that high and low fashion get mixed, it’s easy to forget that in the 1990s any fashion editor who did so faced the wrath of designers. Dello Russo says she still subscribes to this way of dressing partly out of respect for them and partly for impact. ‘Designers have spent six months creating the best total look they can. Why mix it up? If you mix and match, it mean the designer is no good. I mix with accessories. They are the personalised touch.’
Even as a child, she says, she was obsessed with making a statement. Dello Russo was the middle of three children and grew up in Bari in southern Italy. For her 13th birthday, her father, a psychiatrist, took her on a shopping spree. At the time Fendi was all the rage and Dello Russo insisted on a Fendi-logo handbag and matching umbrella, tissue-holder, wallet and key chain, which she carried all at once. ‘My father couldn’t understand why, since we lived in Bari where it never rained, I would want an umbrella. I said, “But, father, it’s part of the look.”‘
She is, she says, in good company. ‘Your queen dresses all matching. What incredible impact that has. No one else dresses all in pink without looking hilarious, but she does. She pulls it off.’ It seems churlish to point out this is only for state occasions not a trip to the bathroom, so I ask whether it’s possible to take things too far. Yes, she says. In fact, children are her litmus test, a means of registering when she has tipped into the grotesque. ‘Sometimes I see mothers and children on the streets at show time. If the kids like you, that’s great as they don’t lie or disguise their feelings. I love seeing their wonderment. If I ask, “How do I look?” they often say, “Like a princess.” The day they say I’m like a witch I will become a minimalist dresser!’
Wow factor is not the only consideration when Dello Russo does her bi-annual clothes shop. What she buys has to 
represent a sound investment, too. ‘All my money goes into clothes because I collect them,’ she says. To this end, Dello Russo is in all other areas relatively frugal. She has no dependants. The hottest off-the-runway outfits are on loan from the designers and she no doubt receives a ‘mate’s rate’ on most purchases. In other words, pretty much everything she earns from her day job and lucrative consultancy and advertising campaign work can be spent on high-voltage garments. ‘I try to imagine if I died my clothing could go on show in a museum. Who would want to see a plain white shirt? So I always think, “Is this something people will want to see in the future?”‘
Dello Russo has sacrificed a lot for her archive and passion for fashion. Her kitchen, in a dark corner off the apartment’s hall, is the size of a drinks cabinet. Upon inspection, I find a lonely lettuce and several cartons of blueberry juice in it. Nothing else. Apparently, it was a choice between a kitchen and more closets. She opted for wardrobes. You sense it wasn’t a difficult choice. In 1996 she got married but it didn’t last. There wasn’t enough closet space for the husband. ‘I did an incredible party and my clothes were unbelievable,’ she says of her wedding dress and 60ft train, designed by her good friend Stefano Gabbana. ‘But the marriage was a disaster and it was finished after six months. Yet the look was amazing.’ Now it’s just Dello Russo and Cucciolina, her miniature pinscher.
In her happy-go-lucky way, Dello Russo laughs at the comedy of her situation. Apart from her morning yoga, she spends every waking hour working. Not that she minds. ‘It’s like I have been invited to a ballroom and I have to dance. I’m working every moment, but it’s OK. I feel like I am on tour.’
This month sees the launch of a perfume. She’s turned down prime retailers to sell it through the Italian online retailer 
yoox.com. That’s her gift, she says, to all her online fans. The perfume features notes of almonds and vanilla and comes in a golden, shoe-shaped flacon. ‘It’s a golden slipper because I always say I am a Cinderella,’ she says with excitement.
’I was invisible and now I am finally at the ball.’ Text By Cat Callender
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
 

Anna Dello Russo interview: Fashion gone rogue

Helmut Newton called her a “fashion maniac”. Sarah Jessica Parker was stunned into silence. With her infectious cackle and outrageous dress sense, Anna Dello Russo – influential blogger, editor, street-style icon – is putting the fun back into dressing up. 

“Reality for me is too tough. Fashion is an escape. Is my addiction! Is better than drugs”: Anna Dello Russo at Gucci’s spring/summer 2011 collection in Milan. Photograph: Retna UK

Anna Dello Russo – Japanese Vogue’s editor-at-large, blogger extra-ordinaire, international style sensation, internet iconoclast – stands, virtually naked, in a hotel room in central London, contemplating a raucous fruit-embellished fascinator. She fixes it into the depths of her shiny shiny hair, and considers her reflection in a full-length mirror. Will it do for the London Fashion Week event at which she is expected, shortly? It most certainly will!

“Cherry. Cherry, on my ‘ead,” she explains. “This is cherry. I like ‘ead pieces. I love them. I met Sarah Jessica Parker. I love ‘er! I was wearing a watermelon in my hair! She look at me like: ‘Oh! Where she from?’” Brief pause. “I should go to [British milliner] Philip Treacy for a…” She says a word, which I think might be “poppy”, although I’m not completely sure. 

Dello Russo is Italian and her English is both hilariously flawed and peppered with fantastical metaphors which makes her a touch obscure almost all the time, although even when you have no idea what she’s actually saying, Dello Russo manages to communicate a sense of rollocking enthusiasm. For example: “Fashion, in me, is folie, is sickness! I never bored of fashion. It is my vision for life. Reality for me is too tough. Fashion is an escape. Fashion! Is my addiction! Is better than drugs, or…” she does a little hand mime which I think might be intended to describe a video-game console.

The 48-year-old Dello Russo is the fashion editor who went rogue. In an industry monopolised by unsmiling, flinty-eyed, fearsome women formatted according to the Anna Wintour of American Vogue model, ADR (as she is increasingly known) is a wild, loud, endlessly amused and amusing anomaly. Where most fashion editors are po-faced and restrained, she is giggly and flamboyant. Where they are elusive and exclusive, she is as omnipresent as she can be, and inclusivity is her religion, her schtick. Where they are tight-lipped and mysterious, she blogs, twice a week, for five hours at a time, about anything that takes her fancy. 

Her blog homepage features a quote from Helmut Newton, describing ADR as a “fashion maniac”, and vintage posts include “10 ways to make sure your fancydress costume won’t disappoint French Vogue editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld” (4. Don’t rent the outfit, you’ll smell like a dusty attic), a link to the video for “Empire State of Mind”, and quantities of puff for her forthcoming fragrance J’ADR! (geddit?), which will be exclusively available online at yoox.com for Christmas, and which she describes as: “A clutch-bag-perfume… a golden slipper like Cinderella shoes… beyond any imagination, beyond any fantasy…”

I first became aware of Anna Dello Russo, and her work in the field of being, well, her, in the late spring/early summer of this year. Her name was being invoked more and more frequently in fashion circles, whispered adoringly and reverentially by PRs and fashion juniors, and checked in style columns. I did a little light Googling and was instantly enlightened.

Anna Dello Russo is the product of our age. A significant but definitely behind-the-scenes player in the game of international fashion for almost two decades, she began gaining a public profile in 2006, via the medium of the Sartorialist.com’s Scott Schulman. Schulman made a regular feature of Dello Russo and her extravagant style. Dello Russo (catchphrase: “I don’t want to be cool. I want to be fashion”) makes a point of faithfully recreating designer looks precisely as they are shown on the international fashion-week catwalks. She likes gold brocade-trimmed military coats with absurdly flouncy skirts and matching gold wedges; feathery Jason Wu cocktail dresses, pink cat’s-eye sunglasses and glittering explosions of Balenciaga ballgowns. As daywear. Through Schulman’s site, ADR gained a fan base.

Somehow Dello Russo began parlaying the Sartorialist’s attention into an entire brand identity. She launched her blog and set about the business of becoming a fashion Name. Which she now definitely is. A thrilling fixture on the fashion-week landscape, perhaps not quite as recognisable as Anna Wintour or Carine Roitfeld or Daphne Guinness – yet, at least – but certainly not far off. Her blog attracts thousands of hits a day. In June this year she launched her first piece of merch: an ADR-logo T-shirt, which sold out in the course of a day.

Erm – how? How did she make this happen?
“At this time, I find a new life. Really. A new life. A new energy!” she says. “Something happen! Be visible! You know when you feel inside, fresh air, you want to go, you don’t know why. Before this, no visible! Invisible! Like Cinderella, working like a cow!” Sure. So you enjoyed being photographed by the Sartorialist, you liked feeling visible?
“At the beginning, no! Because I was shy. Really intimidate by that. In the beginning, we [all Schulman's notable fashion editor targets] were shy! We didn’t understand, we didn’t have the confidence with the poses, in the middle of the street, in front of everyone! It was funny at the beginning!”

 

But, Dello Russo says, she sensed this was the beginning of something interesting. She began following the progression of street-style blogging in earnest, became friends with Schulman and his blogger peer/girlfriend Garance Dore and eventually launched her own blog. “I really get into the mood. I completely understand this was a new media power starting.” Bloggers tell the truth about fashion, she says, unlike magazine editors. “In magazine, I say, I was in ivory tower. I didn’t have time to listen [to readers
]. You don’t feel the people, you get list of number [circulation figures, I presume] but… and feedback come one month later. Internet is immediate! Make contact, I feel my audience! I understand what they like! They make a break in the rules! They talk to you!”

Anna Dello Russo was always interested in fashion. Obsessed by it. She grew up in southern Italy, daughter of a psychiatrist father and a naturalist mother, with a brother and a sister who had absolutely no interest in clothes. She first realised she suffered from what she joyfully refers to as her “sickness” when she was 12. “My father say: ‘What you want for a gift?’ I say: ‘One set of Fendi.’ He say: ‘OK, let’s go to the shop.’ I say: ‘Is not bag, is set. Which means: bag, wallet, scarf, umbrella… All matching.’ My father say: ‘Where you go with this umbrella? Here, is not raining!’ I come from south of Italy. He say: ‘Where you go with this?’ I say: ‘I go to the school!’ He say: ‘With your umbrella?’I say: ‘Yes! This is part of the look!’”

She studied history of art at university. When she graduated, her father packed her off to Milan to do a masters in fashion (“Luckily, he is very support”); she studied under designer Gianfranco Ferrè, and then got a job at Italian Vogue. From there, she climbed the fashion ranks, steadily and diligently, until she made the renegade leap into whatever it is she does now. She gave up her desk-job as creative director for L’Uomo Vogue in 2006 to take on a more free-flowing venture as editor-at-large on Japanese Vogue, a post which allows her to explore her other interests, invest time in her blog and her outfit concepts.

Along the way, Dello Russo has collected a vast quantity of clothes, which she keeps in the Milanese apartment next to the one in which she lives with her dog, Cucciolina. I can’t quite get to the heart of her finances. Possibly, the Japanese Vogue gig pays so handsomely she can afford those two apartments and the hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of Prêt-à-porter. All she will offer is: “Of course, I am journalist! Then I have discount, I am privileged!”
And what of her personal life? I know that Dello Russo doesn’t have children and that she does a lot of yoga. She has made fleeting references to boyfriends from time to time. Right now, she says she is single.

“I spend all my life in fashion! I don’t have children. I actually have a dog. And I lost my husband anyway. Because he said: ‘Too much clothes, in your house!’ He said to me: ‘Where is the space for me?’ I said: ‘There is no space for you.’ He says: ‘Where is the space in the closet?’ There is no space in the closet! He says: ‘Are you crazy?’ Then he left. No space for ‘im!” She was married, she tells me, for a little over a month, and she wore a black Balenciaga two-piece on the day her divorce became official. “My dog, she doesn’t need the space in the closet. She doesn’t like clothes. I tried to put on some clothes, she hates!”

Dello Russo has said she was sad when she divorced, but she doesn’t seem remotely sad now. She laughs throughout the time I spend with her – cackles, actually – and then she totters off into the London night, with her cherry headpiece and her assistant from Japanese Vogue, throwing out final words of wisdom regarding the future of fashion blogging in her wake. “When is starting, any revolution, big earthquake, no control. Like now. We need the time to reset. Select out all the shit stuff. Edit. It already start. It already start.”

On a personal level, she wants more Twitter followers than Lady Gaga. “I see the numbers like Lady Gaga! I am jealous!” And yet again, I am struck by the fact that while I don’t technically understand exactly what it is Anna Dello Russo’s saying to me – I do get it. I really do.

Text By Polly Vernon
Source: Guardian

 Photo Credit: Eva SakellaridesText by Caroline Hamelle Source: GRAZIA fr December 3th

Source: VOGUE Paris December 2010

  “SPEECHLESS! With this appearance
 on December issue of AMERICAN VOGUE andthe interview by legendary HAMISH BOWLES,I can say…  The best way to conclude a very special YEAR”Anna

  Le abitazioni milanesi della giornalista di «Vogue Japan»,icona dei blog della moda
«Ho due appartamenti: uno è per i vestiti»
Anna Dello Russo: «Colleziono anche libri, foto, scarpe.Cucina smantellata per fare la cabina-armadio»
Quattromila paia di scarpe, una collezione di vestiti tanto ampia da essere sostituita ogni stagione e inesorabilmente impacchettata, sigillata e «archiviata» in deposito. La casa milanese di Anna Dello Russo, «editor at large» e consulente creativa di Vogue Japan, ex direttore di L’Uomo Vogue (2000-2006) è doppia.  Due appartamenti uno accanto all’altro al primo piano di un bel palazzo signorile a pochi passi da Corso Como: uno, dove di firmato c’è addirittura lo zerbino (Chanel), è quello in cui Anna vive. Per fare spazio agli abiti di uso più frequente ha anche smantellato la cucina trasformandola in una grande cabina armadio, relegando la mini-cucina a un angolo invisibile del lungo corridoio costellato dalle librerie, i tanti bric-a-brac esposti con ironia, immagini sacre e soprattutto le foto d’autore – molto presente Steven Klein – collezionate durante una carriera nel giornalismo di moda lunga 25 anni.  Ci sono l’attore e regista Edward Norton, gli amici di sempre Stefano Gabbana e Domenico Dolce (si è sposata con un abito realizzato da loro: strascico in chiffon di diciotto metri poi trasformato in pregiato tendaggio per casa), tante modelle, Sharon Stone e soprattutto Catherine Deneuve: «Forse la più grande icona di stile, dall’inizio della carriera fino ai primi anni ’90 non ha sbagliato niente: la quintessenza dello chic».  
L’altro appartamento, più piccolo, accanto alla residenza, è sostanzialmente una gigantesca cabina armadio: una grande camera dove gli abiti stanno negli armadi (profondissimi) in fila per due, tutti conservati in un’identica fodera con una targhetta a indicare il contenuto. Il riscaldamento è spento perché, spiega Dello Russo, «il calore rovina i tessuti». Il salotto, con le pareti trasformate in set fotografico permanente (qui Jürgen Teller, il suo preferito che le ricorda tanto Helmut Newton col quale lavorò a lungo, l’ha ritratta recentemente per «W»), ospita una bacheca di scarpe, poltrone antiche e un grande specchio.

Anna Dello Russo non è soltanto una delle giornaliste di moda più famose con un curriculum di direzioni e consulenze a cinque stelle: è anche – e soprattutto – un’icona modaiola di internet, protagonista di una sorta di reality show digitale. «Mi era chiaro fin dall’inizio che il fenomeno dei blogger di moda – specialmente quelli che fotografano fuori dalle sfilate – avrebbe cambiato il volto mediatico del sistema: sono diventata stylist di me stessa, è stato liberatorio». Così Anna – fisico da modella plasmato con nuotate quotidiane e yoga – si cambia in autotra una sfilata e l’altra con l’aiuto di due assistenti peressere fotografata e subito trasmessavia twitter e dai blog in tutto il mondo. 
È sulla copertina della rivista «10» di questo mese, e il New York Times giorni fa le ha dedicato un lungo servizio. Scott Schuman di «Sartorialist» e Tommy Ton di «Jak & Jil», Bryan Boy di bryanboy.com e Tamu McPherson di «All the Pretty Birds» e tutti gli altri photoblogger sono ormai i cronisti di corte dei suoi look da imperatrice della moda, spesso ripetizioni precisissime dei look da passerella. Il suo sito (www.annadellorusso.com: lo cura personalmente) ospita le «regole» di stile («Le cose di cui chiacchieravo con le amiche: mi limito a condividerle su internet»).  Ha appena battezzato un profumo e sta meditando se dire sì a un’importante casa britannica che le ha chiesto di creare un servizio da té (una delle sue passioni: pugliese di nascita e «icona intergalattica» nella definizione che dà di lei il blog «Opera Chic», Anna è anche una grande anglofila: «La regina è l’icona assoluta: ha i gioielli più belli del mondo»).  Una delle battute di Anna più celebri su internet è «ho un fidanzato, ma non vive con me perché non c’è spazio per i suoi vestiti» (lo scarso spazio negli armadi fu la sortetoccata anche al suo ormai ex marito). «La soluzione? Creare una fondazione a mio nome dedicata alla moda: ci sto lavorando, ma è un iter burocratico piuttosto complesso».
Interview by Matteo PersivaleSource: Corriere della Sera Photo Gallery