WHO IS : Marchesa Luisa Casati

 I was interested to read a piece on Refinery 29 recently that talked about the socialite.

While I have been completely and angrily against the notion of the socialite in modern times, I love vintage. I think Paris Hilton was the downfall of it all or maybe it goes further back.

A lot of society girls have been more then just a good party such as Grace Jones, Kate Moss and such. These girls had skills, a career and goals. The 00s gave birth to people such as Paris Hilton who didn't seem to do anything bar spend, drink and flash her boobs in clubs.

I was interested in how society viewed these it girls back in their glory days. Especially since the first it girl is Italian and I am based here for a while.

Marchesa Luisa Casati was a turn of the century society girl. This is more like art then Kim K though and I cant see any evidence of harsh contouring - rather a dark smokey eye!
She was born in Milan in 1881 and is considered the first female dandy. Yes women could be referred to as dandies as well as the men. Although history rarely considers the women.  Same with the teddy boy culture of the 1950s which glossed over the female involvement.

What I like about her and what attracted me to her character is that she is quoted as saying, 'I want to be a living work of art.' Possibly the first woman to take to heart what Madonna and Lady Gaga would practise years laters. The idea of using costume and props to create a spectacular visual effect. I also love that she predates the famous photo of Salivador Dali walking an ant eater on the subway by parading a pair of pet cheetah around in 1939. She also used live snakes as jewelry at parties. (Although its not okay to use live animals as props. I felt I had to mention that)  She also beat Lady Gaga to the meat dress as well, pulling feathers from two white peacocks that she tied to her windowsill for an outfit and splashing them with chicken's blood.

She inspired and captivated artists including Cecil Beaton and used to own the famous house in Venice which is now the Guggenheim museam. The house is one of my favourite places in Venice actually! There she had mental parties, live music and also, as rumoured, lesbian affairs. She eventually worked her way through her fortune by the 1930s and accumulated a lot of debts as a result of her lavish lifestyle.

She was unusual looking as well. She was 6ft tall (props to a fellow tall girl), her hair was short and fiery red, her skin was bleached (it was the style at the time to bleach your skin as to have a tan meant you were fit to work outside and therefore, poorer) she made her pupils dark with belladonna (don't even ask me how you do that), adding false lashes, thick black kohl and lots of velvet.

Eventually in the 1950s, before she died she believed she could speak to people telepathically so stopped writing letters.

It is difficult to know what is real and what is a myth. Apparently the lady herself loved the idea of the myths so much that she actually encouraged them. As a result, no one seems to know how much of it is real! I love it.