I am always electrified when a connection takes place that can change the course of someone’s work, creative or professionally, particularly when the circumstances appear inconsequential (proving even the most seemingly minor factors never really are!).
For an accessories editorial I produced that appeared earlier this month in The Los Angeles Times Magazine (and which I was uncredited…c’est la vie), the story opened with a Technicolor image of an evening clutch covered in a fringe of Thai jewel beetle wings, each one hand sewn onto the lambskin. (I am obsessed with the naturally occurring iridescent emerald of these insects, and have three brooches made from individual whole beetles that I pin over a ruffle or shoulder so it looks like they are crawling on me.) This magnificent clutch, called “Metamophosis,” is the star in a collection inspired by the Marchesa Luisa Casati and designed by Raven Kauffman. The raven-haired Raven is probably once of the most underrated yet inspired artists today, whether it’s a home interior she’s staging or this new line of bags she’s designing which deserve to be described as “couture.” The line will hopefully finally pinpoint the spotlight on this truly stylish creature. At least this single image, which opened the LAT feature, might be a step in the right direction: the authorized caretakers of the Marchesa Casati archives and biography, Scot D. Ryersson and Michael Orlando Yaccarino contacted Raven-and not to bust her for appropriating the fashion icon as she feared. And why would they considering everyone from John Galliano and Alexander McQueen to Dita Von Teese and the pair behind the Marchesa dress label cite her as a constant source of inspiration?
With her pet cheetah on a diamond-studded leash, her Lalique flask of Absinthe and tendency to go out in little else than a fur coat, it’s not surprising the Italian aristocrat caused a sensation from Paris to Hollywood during the 1920s-and why she continues to engage the imagination today. The two gentlemen overseeing her legacy actually were thrilled with Raven’s work, particularly how she is representing Casati’s eccentrically rich spirit through objects so exquisite that doubtlessly the Marchesa herself would’ve been a fan. Besides the uncanny similarity in physical features I just noticed, there really is no better ambassador than Raven. Talk about an afterlife.
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