Anna Piaggi worked as a translator for an Italian publishing company Mondadori, then written for fashion magazines such as the Italian edition of Vogue and, in the 1980s, the avant-garde magazine Vanity. She was known especially for double page spreads in the Italian Vogue, where her artistic flair was given free expression in a montage of images and text, with layout by Luca Stoppini. Since 1969, she used a bright red manual Olivetti Valentine typewriter for her work.
Piaggi had a large clothes collection, including 2865 dresses and 265 pairs of shoes, according to a 2006 exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. She dressed in an exuberant, unique and eclectic way, never appearing in the same outfit more than once in public. Such was her influence and knowledge in the fashion world, Manolo Blahnik dubbed her 'The world's last great authority on frocks'.
Her associates in the fashion world included the fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld (from the 1970s), who has often sketched her, and Manolo Blahnik, who is the designer of many of her shoes. She was the muse of British milliner Stephen Jones. She was also an admirer of British clothes designer Vivienne Westwood and her hats, made by Prudence Millinery. She lived in New York and visited London and Italy periodically since the 1950s.
Piaggi was married to the photographer Alfa Castaldi in 1962 in New York. Castaldi died in 1995.
Anna Piaggi died at the age of 81 on August 7th, 2012
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