Friday 30 December 2011

Age Cannot Wither Her







Throughout the ages there have been interesting and wonderful people come and gone, though none so fabulous as the Marchesa Luisa Casati - tall & svelte with flaming red hair and piercing green eyes always adorned with layers of black kohl. Born 23 January 1881 to wealthy parents of notability in Milan, there was none in a better position to have any and all they wanted as the Marchesa.

To be as wealthy as an heiress is to have a great power, a power which can be used any which way the beholder pleases. It was art, beauty and opulence which pleased the Marchesa and lavish with it she was. She never spared expenses on outrageous parties and finely crafted fashions and paid many artists to capture her in all her fabulous glory. She wanted to be a living work of art and that she truly was if anybody could ever be. One of my personal favourite things about the Marchesa is the fact that she used to be waited on by nude attendants gilded in goldleaf, get around with two leopards on leashes with diamond studded collars and at one point owned a python which she used to wear around her neck and shoulders as if it were just another piece of jewellery.

Her story (unsurprisingly I suppose) ended in poverty, which I don't think takes away from her glamour, it really just reinforces it and adds a touch of vain tragedy - how utterly fabulous. She spent and spent and lavished all her monies on the arts & beauty not caring where it would leave her, as long as she was surrounded by the beautiful. *sigh*

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