Club swoons over La Divina Marchesa
The speaker at our February meeting was Adie Hess, telling us all about "la Divina Marchesa" Luisa Casati. Born into money, she also made a good, if unhappy marriage, and in early portraits and photographs appears as a respectable Edwardian gentlewoman. Her transition began round about when she met romantic powerhouse Gabriele D'Annunzio, with whom she had a long affair. She took up residence in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice (later the Peggy Guggenheim Collection), filling it with a menagerie of exotic animals. Her soirées were famous and she would be seen roaming the city draped in a python, with a cheetah on a leash, accompanied by two "eunuchs" carrying torches. She spent a fortune on fashion and elaborate party costumes, and created a distinctive look with heavily kohl-rimmed eyes.
Sadly Luisa's extravagance and lack of money sense led her to burn through two inheritances. By 1930 she was $25 million in debt and her properties and possession were auctioned to pay creditors. She fled to London where she lived in poverty, largely ignored by her relatives but supported by a couple of gentleman admirers. She was allegedly spotted rummaging through dustbins outside theatres, looking for feathers with which to adorn herself. When she died in 1957 she was buried in Brompton Cemetery with a tombstone that doesn't even spell her name correctly. However, with the passing of time her reputation has grown and Adie showed how her style has echoed through the decades after her heyday, influencing contemporary fashion designers and celebrities, and inspiring writers and film-makers.
Either Adie or her topic proved popular as we had a big turn-out with a lot of new faces. You can see a video of Adie's talk on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/GwV7-mNUbQc. You can see still photos from the evening at www.flickr.com/photos/sheridanclub/albums/72177720314667412.
