For this task I chose to look at Dries Van Noten’s SS17 ready-to-wear collection and the influences behind it. His inspiration for this collect comes from a wide range of sources, from films to famous works of art, some of which I have highlighted in the mood board. However, the image I chose to analyse further is an image of Marchesa Luisa Casati, a highly influential woman thought to be at one point the richest woman in Italy. She was renowned the world over for her “unique, peculiar style, sumptuous and noir, her layers and peplums, her masculine references, her fox furs and leopard skins, her endless suitors, her theatrical, feathered head-dressings, her neo-Gothic moods and Oriental embroideries” (Vogue Italia, 2011), all of which has established her as a muse to a plethora of fashion designers including John Galliano and Karl Lagerfeld.  

She is pictured here at a costume ball hosted by Baron Guy de Rothschild. She appears to be wearing an extravagant headdress complete with a plume of feathers that compliments a fur shawl she seems to have draped over her arm. Her decorative dress and abundance of jewellery confirm her as the eccentric, exotic and even controversial woman she was known for being. Her pose, complete with cigarette holder, suggests confidence, poise and class, her wealth and status evident through the composed way she holds herself in this photograph. As a woman of high society in the early 1900s there was no doubt a pressure and expectation of how one should dress, however, her outfit in this image is eccentric and over-the-top, unsurprising really as she was well known for her opulent and often exotic dress sense.  

Therefore, we can conclude that the impression we get of Marchesa Luisa Casati from this image is a true representation of her famed and influential style which has been the muse of many a designer, including Dries Van Noten and his SS17 ready-to-wear collection. 

• Cesare Cunaccia, (2011), Vogue Italia, ‘Marchesa Luisa Casati as Modern as Ever’. Available from: http://www.vogue.it/en/people-are-talking-about/obsession-of-the-day/2011/01/marchesa-casati#ad-image59117 (accessed 28/11/17)
• Sarah Mower, (2016), Vogue. Available from: https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2017-ready-to-wear/dries-van-noten (accessed 28/11/17)
• Ann-Marie Voina, (2016), Because London. Available from: http://becauselondon.com/fashion/2016/11/moodboard-uncovered-dries-van-noten-ss17/ (accessed 28/11/17)