Modern than ever 
Sunday 23 was the anniversary of the birth of the dark lady of Italy A futuristic epic figure, inimitable charm meduseo and dark, eccentric and metamorphic dandy dall'intramontabile female allure and still able to issue endless inspirations, reflections of style and charm. Adele Rosa Maria Luisa Amman was born in Milan, January 23, 1881 by a large and wealthy family of cotton manufacturers of Austrian origin elevated to the rank of count by King Umberto I. With her older sister, Louise, the untimely death of his father, was considered the richest woman in Italy, heiress to the excellence of the social scene in Milan.
In 1900 he married the Marchese Camillo Casati Stampa Soncino, from which you will separate without ever coming to divorce in 1914, to pursue freely their own life excesses, magnificence, love and creativity, conceived as a true work of art. Thus begins the legend of his inspiration, muse and patron of artists and writers, constantly updated with the latest trends and innovations that cross the cultural life of the noblewoman until his death in relative poverty in London in 1957. Testify the scope of the various portraits by prominent figures like Giovanni Boldini, which can easily exceed Casati for their artistic skill with a work of incredible dynamic and changing modernity, the sculptor Paul Troubetzkoy, Romaine Brooks. Then the stylized elegance and Fauve by Kees van Dongen, that captures one of her beloved greyhounds, Man Ray, the revolutionary scope of the Futurists Boccioni, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti , Fortunato Depero, the last two companions in adventure Luisa long stay in Capri at the turn of the twenties and she sponsored and financially supported like the Ballets Russes . It's not all: between those who were hypnotized by his existence of fabulous dark lady there are in fact the esthete decadent Robert de Montesquiou, Erte, Jean Cocteau, Cecil Beaton. In 1910 Luisa Casati settles in Venice, in the unfinished eighteenth-century Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, overlooking the Grand Canal in Dorsoduro, not far from the Accademia Bridge - this concerns the Guggenheim Museum - with a menagerie of exotic animals, inaugurating an unrepeatable season wealthy socialite mad prodigality cadence memorable soirées, where he appeared in oriental dress designed for her by Mariano Fortuny, Paul Poiret, turbans, Aigrettes, dramatic make-up, theatrical poses and fabulous jewels. Also in 1910 the novel by Gabriele d'Annunzio Maybe, yes maybe no where in the character of Isabella Inghirami is overshadowed her own, the marquise, who with the writer Pescara had consumed a turbulent and passionate relationship. Kore had renamed the divine Gabriel at the height of their love story. 
Between 1919 and 1920 the stage-set of the Exhibition is the island of Capri, then a refuge for intellectuals, aesthetes, musicians, an international gay and lesbian colony, a repository of eccentric and sophisticated blasées. Luisa rents by Axel Munthe, the famous Villa San Michele, Anacapri cliffs overlooking the beautiful views and are ashamed of the Square with her appearances with a peacock blue or a leopard on a leash, accompanied by a monumental black servant, as the writings tell of Compton Mackenzie, especially Extraordinary Women of 1928. Of course such a wild train de vie could only lead to ruin the bright lady, who arrives on time, in 1930, when its huge debt of $ 25 million in the period and the impossibility of satisfying the many creditors force it into bankruptcy and a public sale of its assets. Since then began his melancholy Sunset Boulevard. He moved to London, where he lives the only daughter Cristina Casati, went to the wife of a British aristocrat, in Knightsbridge. In the British capital disappears Luisa Casati 1957. Is buried in Brompton Cemetery with his black cape lined with leopard, false eyelashes and eyes bilayers, at the foot of his beloved Pekinese stuffed. Luisa Casati, his unique style, sumptuous, noir, overlaps and robes, men's quotations, foxes and spotted, sautoirs mileage, en-tête with feathers, trains neo-Gothic and oriental embroideries, has provided and continues to give inspiration to many fashion designer. Among the mood habituées Casati, John Galliano paid tribute to on numerous occasions. Marchesa, not surprisingly, is the name chosen by the British Georgina Chapman and Karen Craig for their successful fashion house. And certainly hovered the spirit of the sulfur dannunziana Kore in Venice, the Chanel cruise collection designed by Karl Lagerfeld Kaiser in 2010 and presented in a large hotel on the Lido of Venice.
The theater and the cinema could not refrain from taking nourishment from the mythology of the Marchesa Casati. The fact is dedicated Countess, 1965 theatrical adaptation of Paul Osborn is a novel by Maurice Druon, the main performer Vivien Leigh, whose big-screen version is Nina (A Matter Of Time), Vincente Minelli, 1976 with Ingrid Bergman in the role of the Countess Sanziani, character modeled directly on the issue of existential Casati. 
( Cesare Cunaccia - Vogue Italy)
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