An Italian Fashion Legend: The Marchesa Casati

Luisa Casati, Fashion Pioneer

The Marchesa Casati

The Marchesa Casati was painted by Boldini and John Singer Sargent, wore clothes by Fortuny and Poiret, held wild and extravagant parties and kept tigers as pets. A strange, eccentric woman, she had an excessive and extravagant lifestyle but she helped many great artists and she has become famous as a fashion legend.

The daughter of a wealthy ‘cottonieri' or cotton merchant, Luisa Casati was born in 1881. Her parents died young and she had her sister, Francesca, were raised by their uncle, Edouardo Amman. They were the wealthiest heiresses in Italy in the early twentieth century.

Very tall and thin, Luisa wore clothes well. She started to wear dresses of Venetian lace, balloon sleeves, and jeweled belts. She also whitened her face and outlined her famous big eyes with kohl and brightened them with the poisonous bella donna. She began to keep greyhounds with jeweled collars as pets and caused a sensation when she walked around with them.

Her portrait by Boldini in which she wore a black satin Poiret gown, a sable muff, a large hat with ribbons and feathers, and had violet sash, made her famous across Europe. Artists and photographers were anxious to capture her portrait.

Luisa liked the modernity of Fortuny's dresses, including pleated lace gowns and luminescent dresses and scarves and helped popularize the designer. She also wore strident Bakst colors.

Luisa decorated houses in Venice and Rome, and restored the Palazzo Venier die Leoni to its original magnificence with marble floors and chandeliers. At one stage, she was captivated by everything Venetian, but her neighbors regarded her as 'nouveau riche' and an adulteress who associated with artists like Martini and Marinotti. One wonders what they thought of her menagerie of greyhounds, Syrian cats and cheetahs. Her cheetahs traveled in her gondola with her and she'd parade at night with her pet cheetahs with jeweled leashes in Saint Mark's Square. She'd be naked under her cloak and attended by her black escort with flaming touches. She also held lavish parties there. This shocked people, of course, but that was the idea!

Luisa helped artists, such as Rubinstein and Troubetzkoy. She posed for Troubetzkoy's sculpture. When Rubinstein was a struggling young pianist in Rome Luisa arranged a debut concert for him which helped build his reputation. She invited the true music-lovers, he later remarked. Although the pianist was frightened by her intimidating personality at first, he admired her 'remarkable intelligence', according to Infinite Variety, and they were friends for many years.

Although Luisa was kind to many young artists, she could be cruel to her own family. She sent her daughter away to a strict convent school and hardly ever saw her. After her sister was disfigured by meningitis, Luisa stopped inviting her to public soirees.

Luisa's masked balls, and costume parties, and extravagant shopping sprees took their toll. She died at seventy-six in London and she was relatively poor. Another of her famous lovers, the painter, Augustus John, and other friends, helped her money-wise when her extravagance got her into difficulties. Her grand-daughter had liked her and arranged for a nurse to visit every day.

It was a sad end, however, for such a legend, who had made herself into a work of art. She has been remembered, however, in countless novels, films and even designer collections. John Galliano dedicated his Spring/Summer collection of 1998 to her and his models wore clothes inspired by her story.

By Lisa Anne-Sanderson