Luciana Pignatelli

Luciana Pignatelli
Born
Luciana Malgeri

(1935-01-13)January 13, 1935
DiedOctober 13, 2008(2008-10-13) (aged 73)
Other nameLuciana Avedon
OccupationsPrincess, cosmetics spokesperson, author, jewelry designer

Luciana Pignatelli (born Luciana Malgeri; also known as Luciana Avedon; 13 January 1935–13 October 2008)[1][2] was an Italian princess by marriage, socialite, and beauty spokesmodel for Camay soap and Eve of Roma cosmetics, who later became an author and jewelry designer.

Early life

Luciana Malgeri was born in 1935 to Dr. Francesco Malgeri, a journalist, and Nelida Lenti Crespi Malgeri.

Her mother, a Brazilian woman from São Paulo, was married once before, in 1923 to Count Rodolfo ("Dino") Crespi. Dino Crespi was part of a powerful Italian-Brazilian family. With Crespi, Nelida had two sons: Rodolfo ("Rudi") Crespi and Marco Fabio Crespi.[1][3] In 1929, Dino Crespi was murdered by a family driver.[4][5] Nelida and her sons moved to Italy where she met Francesco Malgeri. The two married in 1934, and Luciana was born the next year. They remained married until his death in 1979, with Nelida dying in 1998.

Rudi Crespi would go on to be a director of Vogue Brasil and Vogue Mexico and married Vogue (magazine) and Vogue Italia editor Consuelo Crespi. He also was vice president for Crespi S.A., a São Paulo investment firm[6] at which his brother Marco Fabio was president.[7]

Luciana's father was editor of Il Messaggero from the time of her birth until 1941. As a young adult, her father had been supportive of the Fascist movement and cooperated with the fascistization of the Italian press. As editor, he modernized the newspaper but he also hired journalists who were not approved by the Fascists, including a Freemason and a Jewish person; in 1941, Benito Mussolini removed him as editor. He protested that he was still a Fascist but when the Germans occupied Rome they imprisoned him at Regina Coeli.[8]

After the war, the family moved to São Paulo where Francesco Malgeri continued to work as a journalist and offered support to former Fascist leader Luigi Federzoni, who was living there in postwar exile. In 1950,[9] as Luciana reached her teen years, the family returned to Italy where her father worked at the La Settimana Incom Illustrata magazine, and later as editor of Gazzetta del Popolo. In 1961 he moved to Milan and became CEO of Segisa, the publishing company of Il Giorno newspaper. From 1969 to 1976, he was president of the Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata.[8]

Career

Princess

In 1954, at 19 years old, Luciana Malgeri married Prince Don Nicolò ("Nicky") Maria Pignatelli Aragon Cortès,[10] a Gulf Oil executive with titles that came from medieval kings and land ownership.[11][12] The Pignattellis had two children: Princess Donna Fabrizia in 1956 and Prince Don Diego in 1958.[3][11]

Villa La Saracena in Santa Marinella, gifted to Luciana Pignatelli by her father, the journalist Francesco Malgeri, and designed by architect Luigi Moretti.[13] Photo by Paolo Monti, 1957.

In 1955, her father commissioned the building of a villa, La Saracena, along the coastline 60 kilometers north of Rome, as a holiday home for her and her new family. The building, with custom-designed furnishings, was completed in 1957.[14][15] In 1959, she was on a March cover of Life magazine wearing a dress by Alberto Fabiani (Simonetta Colonna di Cesarò's then-husband) for a story about European fashions.[16]

In 1962 and 1963, newspapers reported that the Pignatellis were separated: she and her children moved to Brazil,[17] and when an Italian court order gave custody of the children to her husband she smuggled them to Portugal, where she and Evelyn de Rothschild reportedly were planning a marriage.[18] In about 1964, she commissioned a new smaller villa, named La Califfa, to be built next to La Saracena. Its construction was finished in 1967; she sold La Saracena and moved to La Califfa.[19]

By 1966, she was legally separated from her husband and awaiting a Church annulment.[20] She made headlines in the society papers: notably, she attended Truman Capote's famous 1966 Black and White Ball and was photographed chatting with her sister-in-law Consuelo Crespi while wearing a 66-carat diamond she borrowed from Harry Winston as a headpiece,[21] and she was named on the 1966 International Best-Dressed List.[22] A Catholic Church court annulled their marriage in 1968.[3][11]

Fashion, cosmetics, and jewelry

In 1966, Pignatelli launched her first collection as a clothes designer, with a showing in her Roman city residence.[20][23][20]

Around this time, she also began working at Eve of Roma, a high-end cosmetics and beauty salon company owned by Gillette Company. When the company's founder and figurehead died,[24] Luciana Pignatelli was hired for the role of international promotion.[25] She later stepped aside to become their European fashion coordinator.[3] It was at Eve of Roma that she met her second husband, Burt Simms Avedon, who was Eve of Roma's European manager.[25]

From 1970 until at least 1977, she appeared on television ads as a spokesperson for Camay,[26][27] both under the name Princess Pignatelli and as Luciana Avedon.[28] In 1977, she was the spokesperson for a relaunch of The Perfumer's Workshop fragrance, Tea Rose,[29][30] with "Princess Luciana" added to the label.[31]

In the early 1970s[32] until her death, she was also involved in jewelry design. In her last years, she worked as a designer based in London traveling twice yearly to the Bangkok workshops of Lotus Arts de Vivre to exhibit her creations[33][34] and overseeing production of jewelry with semiprecious gems that were sold in India's luxury hotels.[1]

Author

Pignatelli published three books from 1970 to 1976. All three were co-written with freelance fashion journalist Jeanne Molli.

In the book tour for her 1970 book, The Beautiful People's Beauty Book: How to Achieve the Look and Manner of the World's Most Attractive Women,[35] she shared that she felt unattractive as a teenager. Her brother Rudi suggested she wear lipstick, then suggested rhinoplasty. Her parents allowed the surgery, and six months later she was married to her first husband.[36] After that marriage ended, she turned to more procedures: eyelid lifts, silicone injections in her cheeks, diacutaneous fibrolysis, and also yoga, aromatherapy, and regular exercise.[2] She suggested keeping the skin clean[37] but also reported that she sometimes used beauty treatments "as an anti-depressant".[38] The book shares her tips, and tips from other famous people of the day such as Ira von Fürstenberg and Talitha Getty.[2]

Her 1973 book, The Beautiful People's Diet Book,[39] continued the theme of sharing her own advice and that of other famous people. She was noted for maintaining a slim figure throughout her life. Her diet book had only one chapter about diet, and mostly promoted sensible meals without overeating. Like her beauty book, she shared tips from other famous people like Pauline de Rothschild, Cristina Ford, Fiona Campbell-Walter, Merle Oberon, and Françoise de Langlade.[40]

In 1976, she published Luciana Avedon's Body Book.[41] Fashion photographer Victor Skrebneski did the photography for this book.[42] The book has many photos of her performing the exercises, in a bikini instead of the then-popular leotard and tights so the reader could see the actual results of the regular regimen. She promoted exercising 20 minutes each day.[27][43]

Personal life and death

Luciana and Prince Nicolò Pignatelli were married from 1954 to 1968, and had two children. She and Burt Avedon were married from 1970 until 1977.[44]

In a 2003 interview, she mentioned in passing that she was taking antidepressants and that there had been a theft in which "everything was stolen".[1] In October 2008, she consumed sleeping pills with gin and died. One magazine article reported that at some point she had mentioned to friends, "I can’t face being old and poor" but this was not substantiated in any other reporting.[45]

Works

  • The Beautiful People's Beauty Book (1970)[35]
  • The Beautiful People's Diet Book (1973)[39]
  • Luciana Avedon's Body Book (1976)[41]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 Tannen, Mary (23 February 2003). "Why We Love Fashion? It's a Challenge.; An Unfinished Woman". The New York Times Magazine. Archived from the original on 26 December 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 "Modern Living: Mirror, Mirror". Time (magazine). 15 March 1971. Archived from the original on 29 May 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Burt Avedon Is Fiance Of Luciana Pignatelli". The New York Times. 3 April 1970. Archived from the original on 19 September 2017.
  4. ↑ "Galleria di personaggi nella storia e cultura bustocca" [Gallery of characters in the history and culture of Busto Arsizio]. Bustocco (in Italian).
  5. ↑ Garcia, Rodrigo. "Vizinho dos condes" [Neighbor of the Counts]. Apartes (in Portuguese).
  6. ↑ Pace, Eric (7 September 1985). "Count Rodolfo Crespi, Figure in Fashion Circles, Dies at 61". The New York Times.
  7. ↑ "Assembleia Geral Ordinária (Crespi S.A. Comércio, Indústria e Empreendimentos)" (PDF). Diário Oficial do Estado de São Paulo (in Portuguese). 9 July 1974. p. 38 – via Centro de Memória Virtual, Tribunal Regional do Trabalho da 2ª Região. Marco Fábio Crespi, Presidente.
  8. 1 2 Carli, Maddalena. "Malgeri, Francesco". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 68 (2007) (in Italian). Treccani.
  9. ↑ "La settimana INCOM". Fondazione Franco Fossati (in Italian).
  10. ↑ "Guatemala: dopo la vittoria degli insorti, trattative di Armas per il Governo provvisorio. Roma: rinnovati, all'ANICA gli accordi cinematografici tra Italia e USA. Il principe Pignatelli e Luciana Malgeri oggi sposi. Seoul: indomabile l'incendio che distrugge il quartiere del mercato. Arizona: nuova tecnica di caccia a razzo con volo cieco" [Guatemala: After the insurgents' victory, Armas negotiates for a provisional government. Rome: Film agreements between Italy and the US renewed at ANICA. Prince Pignatelli and Luciana Malgeri married today. Seoul: Untamed fire destroying the market district. Arizona: New rocket-powered hunting technique with blind flight.]. Incom Week (via L'Archivio Luce Cinecittà ) (in Italian). 7 July 1954.
  11. 1 2 3 "Prince Nicolo Pignatelli To Wed Susan Morton". The New York Times. 8 November 1968.
  12. ↑ "Nicolò Maria Pignatelli Aragona Cortés, 17th prince of Noia". GeneAll. Archived from the original on 23 April 2016.
  13. ↑ Zandri, Emiliano; Zandri, Lorenzo (26 October 2017). "Reportage. La Saracena di Luigi Moretti in stato di abbandono" [Report. Luigi Moretti's Saracena in a state of abandonment.]. Domus (in Italian). Archived from the original on 18 April 2026.
  14. ↑ "Villa detta "La Saracena" di Luigi Moretti a Santa Marinella (Roma)" [Villa known as “La Saracena” by Luigi Moretti in Santa Marinella (Rome)]. Zed Progetti (in Italian). 16 July 2025.
  15. ↑ Bonomo, Michela (November 2023). "Rogue and Trickster: Luigi Moretti, Real Estate and the Villa Triptych". Burning Farm (2). doi:10.63602/23215.
  16. ↑ "(Cover)". Life (magazine). 2 March 1959.
  17. ↑ Knickerbocker, Cholly (23 September 1962). "The international set: A princess flees". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  18. ↑ Knickerbocker, Cholly (16 September 1963). "Lady Astor's Grandson, 27, Missing in Mediterranean". The Patriot-News.
  19. ↑ "Censimento delle architetture italiane dal 1945 ad oggi: Villa La Califfa" [Census of Italian Architecture from 1945 to Today: Villa La Califfa] (in Italian). Direzione Generale Creatività, Contemporanea del Ministero della Cultura.
  20. 1 2 3 Sheppard, Eugenia (25 April 1966). "Princess Designs Low-Cost Fashion". The Gazette (Montreal).
  21. ↑ Trebay, Guy. "50 Years Ago, Truman Capote Hosted the Best Party Ever". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 29 November 2016.
  22. ↑ "Best-Dressed Women of Year Named". 14 January 1966. ProQuest 116868682.
  23. ↑ Lambert, Eleanor (28 August 1966). "High Fashion in Rome: Italy Shows Its Fall Collections". Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
  24. ↑ "Eve Zoltan Elmes, the Founder Of Eve of Roma Cosmetics, Dies; Fashion Plates and Royalty Were Among Those Drawn to Her Via Veneto Salon". 1 May 1969.
  25. 1 2 Taylor, Angela (6 December 1972). "She's Making Her Mark In the World of Cosmetics". The New York Times.
  26. ↑ "1977 Camay Beauty Soap". YouTube.
  27. 1 2 Varie, Patricia (21 December 1976). "Television's 'Camay lady' doesn't hide her face or body". Valley News.
  28. ↑ "Mailbag". The Kansas City Star. 17 November 1974.
  29. ↑ "Princess 'petals' perfume". San Antonio Express-News. 18 November 1977.
  30. ↑ "Luciana makes 'scents'". San Antonio Express-News. 12 November 1977.
  31. ↑ "Advertisement, Neiman-Marcus". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 13 October 1977.
  32. ↑ "Portrait of Two B.P." The Kansas City Star. 28 May 1972.
  33. ↑ McHugh, Fionnuala (3 May 1998). "Personal touch for fancy pieces". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 10 May 2017.
  34. ↑ "Lotus Arts de Vivre". Palm Beach Daily News. 9 March 2000.
  35. 1 2 Pignatelli, Luciana; Molli, Jeanne (1970). The Beautiful People's Beauty Book: How to Achieve the Look and Manner of the World's Most Attractive Women. New York City: McCall Publishing Company.
  36. ↑ Skinner, Olivia (8 May 1972). "Her Beauty Secret: An Attentive Husband". St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
  37. ↑ Walker, Peggy (19 April 1971). "Beauty is Serious Business Says Princess L. Pignatelli". Anaheim Bulletin.
  38. ↑ Goldstein, Marilyn (1 April 1971). "Ugly duckling-turned-swan, princess writes beauty book". Waterloo Region Record.
  39. 1 2 Avedon, Luciana; Molli, Jeanne (1973). The Beautiful People's Diet Book. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. ISBN 0-8415-0280-3.
  40. ↑ Greendorfer, Tere (30 October 1973). "Diet like the beautiful people". The Star-Ledger.
  41. 1 2 Avedon, Luciana; Molli, Jeanne (1976). Luciana Avedon's Body Book. New York City: M. Evans and Co. ISBN 0-87131-211-5.
  42. ↑ Winakor, Bess (23 November 1976). "Luciana 'Ads' Beauty To Her Life". Chicago Sun-Times.
  43. ↑ Light, Janet (3 October 1976). "Guide To A Gorgeous Figure". The Cincinnati Enquirer.
  44. ↑ Rasky, Frank (23 September 1977). "What beautiful people do: 'I'm a peddler of dreams'". The Toronto Star.
  45. ↑ Amiel, Barbara (25 February 2009). "Who will give in to despair is a mystery". Maclean's. Archived from the original on 24 May 2025.
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