Grande Dame of Fashion Laura Biagiotti Dies

26/05/2017
The designer was 73 years old, and started out in her mother’s dressmaking shop. The New York Times dubbed her the “queen of cashmere”. She was the first big name to hold shows in Beijing and Moscow

She lived for art, and despite studying to be an archaeologist, was destined to become a fashion designer. She would smile as she said how life is always full of surprises. She was also one of the world’s leading collectors of futurist art, above all thanks to her impeccable taste rather than her unlimited resources from Asian hedge funds.

This highly cultured woman preferred the company of the 10,000 books in her library and her beloved dogs, all strays, to the backstage of fashion shows and taking applause on the catwalk. Laura Biagiotti, who has died suddenly from a heart attack at the age of 73, was the “queen of cashmere” as the New York Times dubbed her, but above all one of the pioneers of Italian fashion, a cosmopolitan Roman who held shows in China when the idea of global fashion brands was still limited to luxury leather goods. She was already making forays into Russia when today’s superstar designers were still at school or learning the ropes.

Loose-fitting dresses and perfume
The daughter of Delia Soldaini Biagiotti, who had a renowned dressmaking business in Rome, she took over the reins of the family business and transformed it into a global enterprise run by women. It was set up by her mother, and since 2005 her beloved daughter Lavinia has also played an important role. In a world so often beset by backbiting, she was only ever referred to as “a real lady”, if not “a great lady”. She never bragged about the fact that she had met the last emperor of China years before Bertolucci’s Oscar-winning film, and was allergic to boasting, even when she received the well-deserved honour of having an Italian postage stamp dedicated to her. The world of fashion will remember decades of Laura Biagiotti’s soft, loose-fitting dresses, that seemed designed to lovingly caress women’s bodies, and the world of perfume will remember her highly successful scents, always dedicated to her native city of Rome. But she also loved Milan, where she held her shows, with the sincere love of a hard-working Roman who acknowledged it as a great international showcase for business and the ideal place to work.

A passion for futuristic art
With her customary generosity, she lent the city of Milan one of the most beautiful works on show at the Expo 2015, the large painting by Giacomo Balla, “Futurist Genius”, a glorious explosion of shards of the Italian tricolour that enchanted millions of visitors. Laura Biagiotti was in fact a leading private collector of Balla’s work, and always happy to send paintings to exhibitions on Futurism, whether in New York or Tokyo. She was a collector whose purchases reflected her personal tastes, and, once again, a twist of fate: “It was a chance visit to a Roman gallery. A small show in 1986,” she explained to Corriere della Sera’s arts supplement, “la Lettura”. “I fell in love with his art, and when we came out my husband said that if I liked it so much I should buy some. That’s how it all started, with a dozen minor works”.

di Matteo Persivale

Fonte:http://www.corriere.it/english/17_maggio_26/grande-dame-of-fashion-laura-biagiotti-dies-94521a30-41f9-11e7-b153-e2fd0d43182d.shtml

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