Fashion icon and eccentric nonpareil, Anna Piaggi is, according to her good friend Manolo Blahnik, ‘the only authority on frocks left in the world’. Creative consultant to Italian Vogue since 1988, her monthly Doppie Pagine (double-page spreads) in which she rhapsodises about anything fashion-related that has taken her fancy (a print, a word, some graffiti on the Paris Metro), have become an institution. This month, the V&A opens an exhibition dedicated to her life and work, including pieces drawn from her vast and off-the-wall wardrobe (Anna Piaggi: Fashion-ology, until April 23; vam.ac.uk). 

Who are your favourite designers of the moment? I like Dolce & Gabbana and Rifat Ozbek. Also John Galliano, because he’s a designer whose clothes create their own mood. I’ve recently rediscovered Chanel, who I used to wear years ago. I particularly like the collections they make for Japan, full of such stunning patterns and colours. I’ve also rediscovered Missoni, the clothes are made with such craft. And I like the modernism and discipline of Prada. Which shoes have caught your eye recently? I always wear Manolo Blahnik. His shoes are so artistic and friendly and always suit my mood. 

What do you wear to work? I work from home. So either a jogging costume from Dolce & Gabbana or a ‘Gazette’ newspaper-print dressing-gown from Galliano. Who makes the best cashmere? Malo (malo.it). 

Handbags? Chanel. Who is your favourite jeweller? Betony Vernon in Milan (paradisefound.it) and Quidam de Revel in Paris (00 33 1 42 71 37 07). 

Where do you buy your underwear? La Samaritaine (lasamaritaine.com) in Paris and Intimo Sirena (via California1) in Milan. Who makes the best jeans? Vivienne Westwood. 

What have been your biggest fashion indulgences? Hats (by either Philip Treacy or Stephen Jones), gloves (from Missoni Men, with cutout fingers - I wear them while I’m working and with matching nail varnish) and walking canes (from Madeleine Gély, 218 blvd St Germain, Paris). Which are your favourite shops? Corso Como 10 (10corsocomo.com) and Dolce & Gabbana in Milan. 

Which are your favourite shops outside Italy? Stephen Jones (stephenjonesmillinery.com) and Manolo Blahnik (020-7352 8622) in London. Ragtime in Paris (23 rue de l’Echaude). Which are your favourite hotels? Hotel Pont Royal (hotel-pont-royal.com) in Paris. The Dorchester (dorchesterhotel.com) in London. 

Which is your favourite restaurant? La Torre di Pisa (trattoriatorredipisa.it) in Milan. What has been your biggest beauty extravagance? Dyeing my hair blue. 

Which cosmetics would you be lost without? Foundation. I use Estée Lauder’s Futurist. Who makes the best mascara? MAC. 

Lipstick? Chanel. Nail polish? François Nars. 

Who does your facials? I get all my treatments (including massages, manicures and pedicures) from the Grotta Giusti Hotel in Montecantini Terme (grottagiustispa.com).  Is there a diet that works for you? Pasta. 

Anna Piaggi is unique. She is a fashion reporter, editor, divinor of trends, designers’ muse and self-styled icon. ‘Fashion-ology’ refers to her idiosynchratic way of looking at clothes. With her own take on scientific precision, an attitude rather than a method, she has for over 30 years told the new stories about fashion. Putting words to clothes, turning pages into shows, styling the future: this has been Anna Piaggi’s art of fashion. To see Piaggi at work is a rare glimpse into her fascinating career. London was a catalyst, and highlights from her personal archive in Milan detail her extraordinary trajectory on the world fashion stage. 

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The exhibition is divided into 13 statements, sometimes only the size of a text panel, sometimes a room full of objects. The logic of the layout is a series of intersecting As and upside down As that become Vs: Anna and Vogue, Anna and Vanity, Anna and her husband Alfa, and Vern and the V&A. Bending the material to fit this system is in keeping with Anna Piaggi’s loyalty to typographic design, each month bending words to fit Luca Stoppini’s layout in her Double Pages. The shape allows each section to open onto the next; her ideas are never contained or finished, but will be picked up at a later date. Chronology overlaps, punctuated by favorite themes, her love of Englishness for example. 

 

 

The repeated presence of collaborators shows her loyalty and explains the 13 favorite outfits in the final section, created by designers who she promoted at he beginning of her career. They are displayed on a final ‘a’, painted in bright red, the red used by Ettore Sottsass for the 1969 Olivetti typewriter which Anna Piaggi uses daily – and of course the red of her lipstick.