How To Dress Like: Anna Piaggi

With all the recent and frankly, omnipresent focus on Anna Wintour's ability to cooly reign it all in, I can't help but be thankful that there will always be an antithesis to her brand of austerity. Don't get me wrong, I worship a calculating brilliance like any other, but when I can barely manage to put on a bra in the morning that's when I think of Anna Piaggi, the famed mascot of Vogue Italia who is never dressed in anything but head-to-toe costume.

With her penchant for hair dye (she currently sports a light blue bob), cartoonish hats and bright sneakers – she’s who imagine Lewis Carroll would have fantasized about, had there not been so many little girls around…



In true 'How to Dress Like' fashion, let's break down her look!


Step 1: Obviously you’d need to dye your hair. Blue, green, pink or white would do. If this is merely a one day excursion into wild dressing, I suggest colored hairspray...does the trick and goes down the drain as easily as it was sprayed on.

Step 2: Take some lipstick and draw and big circle on one cheek…

Step 3: A strong lip is also quite important to Piaggi's look, feel free to experiment with brights...pink, red or orange work best.

Step 4: If you know any midgets, steal their hats. In the likely event that you don't (unlike Liz Lemon on that episode of 30 Rock!), I suggest a Petit Beret or a Chapeau Claudette!

Step 5: While you can cover them in newspaper to replicate this first look, you might want to keep them as is, for wacky variation's sake.

Step 6: Collect as many newspapers as you can. Tape a few together and then proceed to tape them to your body.

Step 7: Do you have a plate handy? It would make a perfect medallion on necklace, don't you think?

Step 8: Now cover one shoulder with a cape, a table cloth, hell, even the drapes.

Step 9: to further accessorize this look, take a look around your room and grab the first inanimate object you see...lampshade, wine bottle - anything goes! If you can figure out how to attach them to your outfit, then a tiny bowler hat off to you.

Step 10: Take a gym-class stretch around the room. If you don't break any immediate objects then it's off to Margiela with you! BRAVO!