Fashion writer Anna Piaggi dies at 81

ROME, Italy – Italian fashion icon and style journalist Anna Piaggi, who wrote for Vogue Italia and inspired German designer Karl Lagerfeld, died in Milan on Thursday, August 2. She was 81.

Piaggi is famous for lighting up the front rows of fashion shows from Paris to New York with her eccentric style, eye-catching blue hair and theatrical make-up. She was credited with “shaking up” the fashion world.

Lagerfeld, creative director at fashion houses Fendi and Chanel, revered Piaggi. He once wrote that “Anna invents fashion. She automatically dresses herself as we will dress ourselves tomorrow.”

In 2006, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum put on an exhibition of Piaggi’s extensive wardrobe collection. This included thousands of dresses and wildly patterned tunics that she often wore in her trademark layering style.

Piaggi died at home in the Italian style capital of Milan, Vogue Italia said in a statement on its website. It did not give the cause of her death. – Agence France-Presse