Luisa Casati was not born to infamy. The daughter of a rich Italian nobleman, her parents died when she was young, leaving the 15-year-old as one the country’s richest heiresses. In 1900, aged 19, she married Count Camillo Casati Stampa di Soncino and had a child, Cristina. And so it was that, up until this point, Marchesa Luisa Casati fulfilled the expectations laid out before her, living the typical life of a rich European aristocrat. It was whilst on the aristo circuit, however, that she met the Italian poet and lothario Gabriele d’Annunzio. The two became lovers, with the notoriously debauched Gabriele introducing his new muse to a whole new world, one of decadent parties and artist filled salons, of outrage, intrigue and scandalous behavior. The Marchesa never looked back.

Over the course of the next 30 years, she dedicated herself to decadence. She cultivated a dramatic look – her tall, skinny frame topped with bright red dyed hair, bleached skin, red lips and kohl rimmed eyes. She was photographed by Beaton, painted by Augustus John and Giovanni Boldini and sculpted by Jacob Epstein. A patron of the Ballet Russes, she held court at her outrageous soirées in Grecian Fortuny or a sheer sheath dress worn with nothing underneath, whilst her guests were waited on by countless servants – themselves often naked and gilded in gold leaf. Her jewels were by Lalique (she is said to have inspired Cartier’s Panther designs,) her pets were cheetahs and boa constrictors (the snake once escaped during a stay at the Ritz in Paris,) and the stories could not have been more scandalous.

This life of excess was lived out across Europe as the Marchesa flitted from Rome to Venice, Paris to London. For a while during the 1920’s, she took up residence in Capri, and it was here that we came across her, resplendent in all her eccentricity at the cliff top Villa San Michele, once the island’s most famous villa and now a much-visited museum. At KOTUR we have taken inspiration from the island in all its glittering, sun-drenched glory for our Spring Collection, and, for a time in her life, the Marchesa did too. She rented it from its owner Axel Munthe, installing herself in spite of her landlord’s frequent attempts to evict her. With its sweeping views of the town, the whitewashed villa and its lush gardens full of ancient Roman and Egyptian artifacts was the perfect spot for a woman who dealt in drama – the villa’s Egyptian granite Sphinx was a particular favorite of hers. During her time there, she transformed the place, arriving with her own band of servants and redressing the rooms to her taste. She covered the mosaic floors in animal skins and black carpets, the walls with golden curtains and dark velvet drapes. One guest was the writer Montgomery Compton Mackenzie, who recounted of a visit, “There was a golden gazelle on each side of the heavy door that was opened by a servant, clad in blue velvet tails and breeches. The Cisisbeo fluttered around the entrance hall to announce that the Marchesa was ready to receive me; we shortly would be having tea in the pergola. I continued to the drawing room and went in. Surprise is not the right word for my reaction when I saw my hostess lying on the large bearskin rug in front of the fireplace without a stitch of clothing.”

 All this excess ended up getting the better of the Marchesa in the end, who, having made her way through her fortune, died penniless in London in 1957. She was buried alongside her taxidermied Pekingese, wearing one of her beloved leopard print creations and a pair of her famously distinctive false eyelashes. Her epitaph was taken from Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, reading, “’Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.‘ Her legend more than lives on. 

A Man Ray portrait of Casati dressed as Elisabeth of Austria, 1935 (Man Ray Trust by SIAE 2014)

The Rajmata Gayatri Devi was never going to live an ordinary life. Born in 1919, she was the daughter of the Prince and Princess of Cooch Behar, a state in eastern India. Known as Ayesha, she was a tomboy – rumor has it she shot her first panther aged 12. She first met her husband before she was even a teenager. The then 21-year-old Maharajah of Jaipur was the country’s most glamorous man, the handsome Prince of Rajasthan’s magical pink city and a famously good polo player. Later, whilst she was at finishing school in London, they became secretly engaged, much to the consternation of both sides’ relatives. He already had two wives, both married for reasons of state, and her family was concerned that the independently minded Princess would be stifled by life in a much more traditional royal household as his third consort. Theirs was a love match, however, and they married in 1940 nonetheless. Together, they ruled Jaipur until it was acceded into the new Dominion of India after independence.  In 1970, her husband died suddenly in England and Ayesha became Rajmata, the Queen Mother of her city.

Maharani Gayatri Devi a polo player herself encourages the game

Gayatri Devi in her office after joining C Rajagopalachari’s Swatantra Party in the 1960s

But Ayesha Jaipur was much more than a consort. She played tennis, drove her own car, rode horses and joined in polo games at a time when royal women were supposed to keep purdah, a custom of segregation, all the while nudging her country towards change as she went. She opened a famous school for girls. She entered politics, winning a seat in India’s parliament in 1962 with what was then the biggest landslide victory ever recorded. Later on, during the political upheaval of Indira Gandhi’s notorious State of Emergency she would be imprisoned for six months.

Gayatri Devi at Rambagh Palace

Gayatri Devi pictured by Cecil Beaton in 1940

Maharani Gayatri Devi with Jacqueline Kennedy in 1962

And all of this took place against a backdrop of impeccable style. Encapsulating a time when all of India’s lavish regal traditions and exoticism blended with the jet set allure of the Hollywood era to bring about one of the most glamorous times in history, Ayesha’s reign was legendary. Named one of the world’s most beautiful women by Vogue, who cited her ‘a dream in saris and jewels,’ she was a vision whether clad in her bright chiffon saris or immaculately cut jodhpurs. The couple’s principle residence was the Rambagh Palace, a cream, sprawling confection of Mughal and Rajput architecture set in majestic gardens on the outskirts of the city. It was there that Cecil Beaton famously photographed the young Maharani in 1943, and there that she entertained everyone from the Queen to Jackie Kennedy. Visitors would find elephants in the gardens and custom Rolls Royce’s on the driveway.

 In her memoir, A Princess Remembers, she recorded, “When the Maharaja first took me to our residence at the Rambagh Palace, I was enchanted. There was a high-ceilinged, airy bedroom all in pink with pale voile curtains, pastel divans and chaises lounges. A large sitting room was filled with objet’s d’art from the Jaipur collection. Small jeweled animals, rose quartz and jade, and curved daggers with white jade hilts and jewels were displayed in glass cabinets. Jade boxes were encrusted with semi-precious stones in floral designs, and heavy crystal bowls were filled with flowers. My maids helped me change quickly into Rajasthani costume in auspicious reds, pinks and oranges, and to put on more jewelry, never forgetting the dozens of ivory bangles.”

However rarefied her life, however, Ayesha was not precious. Her approach was natural, and more than a little tongue in cheek. Once, when asked of her beauty secrets, she replied, “Tell them I drink a bottle of whiskey a day, and I dye my hair black with boot polish.” It is this casual approach to glamour, and its blend with a game changing approach to life that we at Kotur so admire. As champions of women who stand out from the crowd, she is impossible not to revere. She died aged 90 in 2009. The most glamorous Princess of her era, she has become the stuff of legend, a beacon of glamour who strove for modernity in extraordinary time gone by.

Photo Courtesy of Cecil Beaton, c. 1943, telegraph, pinterest, dailymail, wmagazine

Pictures: Shot by Horst, for Vogue’s Book of Houses, Garden’s and People, published 1968. Used copies available on Amazon here http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0370004973

And from Windsor Style by Suzy Menkes published 1991. Used copies available here http://www.amazon.com/The-Windsor-Style-Suzy-Menkes/dp/0246132124/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366258063&sr=8-1&keywords=windsor+style