The last Visconti

June 2013
TELVA (Spain)
June 2013
TELVA (Spain)
June 2013
TELVA (Spain)
June2013
TELVA (Spain)
June 2013
TELVA (Spain)
June 2013
TELVA (Spain)
June 2013
TELVA (Spain)
June2013
TELVA (Spain)
June 2013
TELVA (Spain)
June 2013
TELVA (Spain)
June 2013
TELVA (Spain)
June 2013
TELVA (Spain)
June 2013
TELVA (Spain)
Translation:
The last Visconti
Granddaughter of the Mayor of Rome after World War II, daughter of a politician, wife of an aristocrat
who was descendant of one of the oldest dynasties of Italy, and mother of four children; Osanna
Visconti di Modrone is not the typical jewelry designer. Her exquisite taste -irreverent in contrast with
the classicism of Il Gattopardo, film of his famous ancestor Luchino Visconti- shines in her home
situated in the center of Milan and in her last collection, Chiodo, an ode to punk.
(Photo credit) On the other page, Osanna Visconti in her living room. She is wearing a Bottega
Veneta jumpsuit, necklace and bracelet of her collection Chiodo, available on YOOX.COM. On this
page, detail of her library. On the table, a methacrylate cube with the gymnast Nadia Comaneci on
the buck, by the artist Laura Matei.
“In this house there are fresco paintings from the Ottocento, from the lounge to the kitchen, I really
like to give it an irreverent touch, mixing it with contemporary pieces.”
I must admit that I was nervous. To get into an aristocratic family house, with a surname that dates
back to the Middle Ages, inspires respect. The lord of the house is an art gallery owner and is the
nephew of the famous film director Luchino Viconti; the lady is a very elegant woman who designs
jewelry and whose ancestors were prominent politicians who appear in the history books. I have an
appointment with her at 11.30 h. Her house and her jewelry atelier are only 10 minutes’ walk from the
Duomo of Milan. We went through the door of number 13 of Santa Marta street and before going
upstairs we passed a cortile where stands a sculpture of Jedd Novatt. We ring the bell. The first
impression is important, and in front of a neon fuchsia on my left, there is a sculpture of Mao Zedong
and a poster by the artist Urs Lüthi on my right, I do not know whether to relax or to get more
nervous. We move on and enter the library, full of books, artworks (in a methacrylate box the
gymnast Nadia Comaneci on the buck, work of the artist Laura Matei) and a glass lamp hanging from
the ceiling. Then a warm and lively lounge, with fresco paintings from the 18th century, where
Osanna Visconti di Modrone comes to meet us.
She receives us barefoot and all the rigid and ceremonial schemes I had in my head, disappear. "I
was getting dressed for the photos and you caught me with no shoes!" she tells us while she gives us
a welcome in Spanish. “Actually what I speak is Itañolo (Spanish in Italian is Spagnolo),” she says in
a friendly way. She calls the service Carmen comes, a South American lady, who also in Spanish
gives us something to drink. Osanna wears a Bottega Veneta jumpsuit that seems made especially
for her measures (I think she's a size 36). She is very thin but with curves. I have not seen a more
elegant woman in my life. I imagined her taller (she is 160cm tall more or less) and she has that
wonderful skin of women who wisely did not want to undergo surgery and to whom wrinkles (few, I
must say) and expression lines fit great.
Now with shoes, a very high brown leather sandals also of Bottega Beneta, she lets me choose
where to sit for the interview. I choose a brown chair and she stands in front of me willing to be
peppered with questions. Obviously, with this panorama and before shooting with my questions, I
can only fall surrendered at the feet of this lovely and normal woman.
A CREATIVE AND EXCENTRIC MOTHER
“To understand a work of art, especially if it is contemporary, it is helpful to know the author, to know
what led him to do this work and what he wants to transmit with it,” Osanna argues. So even though
her jewels are easy to understand, with key sculptural identity, I realize that she does not design
jewelry in a creative outburst of a bored aristocrat.
(Photo credit) In a corner of her home. The wall is hand painted by herself. "Actually my neighbor
helped me," she says.
She has the art in the blood. "My mother has always been very bold to dress and wear jewelry.
Whereas other women of her time wore discrete and fine jewelry, she wore big and splashy
pendants and bracelets," and she continues "it was hilarious to see her."
June 2013
TELVA (Spain)
I've read that you as a child played with your mother's jewelry, do you remember any particular gem
you gave more attention to?
She had a huge butterfly made by an Italian artist, Mario Ceroli, who works a lot with tears of wood,
but in this case they were in gold. It was a brooch that could also be a pendant. It was my favorite
part, it drove me crazy. I also remember another pendant, made by Umberto Mastroianni, it was very
big and with stones inside, very 70s, beautiful and original, and a wonderful bracelet made by ​Lucio
Fontana.
Did she only have modern pieces she ordered to Italian artists of that moment?
No, she had also classic jewelry like a very nice pearls necklace given to her in the 50s. When I still
lived in Rome, before I got married, she came to work with me and I remember that she ordered a
very long necklace that she later reinterpreted. She is very creative, passionate, eccentric and fun,
but not only with jewels. She has always gone ahead, even beyond me. In the decoration of her
house, in fashion... She is very modern.
Can you illustrate this with an image?
In the 70s she bought a huge chalet in the mountains, in Cortina, it was all lined with leopard velvet.
It has remained like that until today and the contrast between the print and the wood is very nice.
This could be awful but she knows how to do it.
“I ALWAYS WANTED TO DESGIN JEWELERY”
What did you dream to be when you were a child?
Jewelry designer. When I was at school I spun beads under my desk and I sold earrings to my
colleagues in the breaks. We lived very close to San Pedro Square and the old Rome, in Piazza
Navona area. There was a store that still exists, called Novitá, where they sell beads. It drove me
crazy! At home I made a kind of workshop and instead of studying I spent my time spinning beads in
a metallic wire.
How do you remember your childhood in Rome?
I have been a very fortunate person. I grew up in a large family, we were five siblings, we had a big
and brightly house and we have always been very close. It was a very happy and wonderful stage.
Also Rome is a unique city, my school was above Piazza Di Spagna square, in Trinitá dei Monti, a
privilege.
Your father was one of the founders of the party Alleanza Nazionale, your mother was an artist. What
did you talk about during dinner?
We had dinner all together in a very happy atmosphere. My siblings have always been very friendly
and witty. My father, besides a politician, was a great thinker. He repeated us that we had to invest in
ourselves and form us very well. He was highly educated and a great lover of the city of Rome, his
father was the mayor for ten years. Even today with 87 years he has a foundation that gives
scholarships to students who publish books about the city. He knows everything about every corner,
square, arch, column...
“I MET ANDY WARHOL IN NEW YORK”
Returning to your passion for jewelry, with 19 years you flew to New York to work at the auction
house Christie's. How was life in the Big Apple in the 80s?
I had the privilege of being in the jewelry department and helped organizing the auction for Florence
Gould’ jewels, a multimillionaire American lady, the wife of a magnate of the railway lines. Her jewels
were, like everything else in America, on a large scale! I had in my hands stones of the size of an
apple.
Do you met some noteworthy personality?
Before the auction, important families and personalities with a lot of money came to Christie's to see
the pieces in private visits: Henry Kissinger, Hubert de Givenchy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Donald
Trump… Someone I saw more than once, he came a lot!, was Andy Warhol, a great lover of
gemstones. With each special client, an expert gemologist and I passed into the safe. I am still
amazed by the confidence they had on me.
June 2013
TELVA (Spain)
Do you remember some jewelry of that private collection?
A huge blue stones necklace and another very famous one snake-shaped, brightly studded buckler, I
think the latter was from the collection of the Mexican actress Maria Felix.
Which woman in your opinion knows how to wear jewelry with a special taste?
Diana Vreeland did it at her time. She had a great personality and a collection of unusual jewelry
pieces she knew how to mix and wear.
Is there a protocol or rules to wear it right?
I do not like the rules or regulations, or to fall into stereotypes. You need to love them and they have
to reflect the personality of the wearer. I really have fun when I mix it - bronze necklace with
diamonds earrings…- wear them with jeans but also with an evening dress, or a bathing suit at the
sea. It is not necessary to search always the symmetry, but a light touch... and all depends on the
mood of each day.
Do you always wear jewelry?
Yes, always, and sometimes I think first of the pieces, especially if I have just created a collection. It
amuses me to try them and experiment with different looks.
And any piece you never take off?
A ring with a great sentimental value to me. Now I do not wear it because I cut my finger the other
day and I swelled. (she shows me the wound and I see that her voice is choppy. She tries to
overcome and continues). Is it possible that it still thrills me? The ring belonged to my sister who died
at 40. My wonderful life was interrupted when she missed. We worked together and we were very
close. I stopped working for a long time, I did not want to continue designing…
What made you restart?
My group of friends forced me, they are always so affectionate and loving. After 5 or 6 years without
designing, I presented a collection in Allegra Hicks store in London and until today.
“MY HOBBIES? THE GARDEN AND PAINTING”
She wants to show me her jewelry studio and, when we are going out to go down to the cortile, she
points out the paint flake by the lock. "Bamboo tore it all," she says, "our Labrador dog." Osanna is a
nervous and restless woman, in the photos she does not stop moving and her head goes faster than
her speech. She admits being in perpetual movement. When we were on the hall, she told me that
her neighbor had a wonderful home and without thinking twice she rings the doorbell of the house
next door. The service opens the door and Osanna says as she walks, "I came with some Spanish
friends, Idaricaaa!” Indeed, the house is beautiful. We caught Idarica in her workshop in one of the
rooms. Osanna explains to me that she designs and produces printed fabrics. It is seen that in this
neighborhood the art is took very seriously. We said goodbye and Osanna tells me about her
hobbies: "I am never still and every minute I invent something. During the summer I like gardening. In
the winter I love to paint the walls of our house in the country. It is in a medieval style town, Grazzano
Visconti, which the grandfather of my husband built in the late 19th century. I take pictures of the
grounds of the streets like a burgundy and ecru rhombus, and reproduce them at home." With the
iPad in her hand she shows me pictures of the town, and even in some of them she is in a scaffold
with the paintbrush in her hand.
What does your husband think about your work as a jewelry designer? (She stays silent and smiles.)
He says nothing. Well, sometimes he tells me that I do very well. He respects my work, which is a
lot. Italian men from his generation are not usually that way…
Giangaleazzo Visconti has a contemporary art gallery in the center of the city. They were married a
year after they met, and Osanna left his beloved Rome to move to Turin, then to Grazzano Visconti,
until they finally settled in the house where we are, "after a year of living in the country and already
with children, I needed the city as breathing".
June 2013
TELVA (Spain)
What do you miss the most from Rome?
No city is comparable to its beauty. In every corner you can find a treasure, but Rome is to have
fun, for meeting to breakfast, then meeting for lunch at one o'clock at a square, and do nothing. The
Romans know how to enjoy life more than the rest. Milan is a city in constant boiling of ideas but it
is boring if you do not work. I'm happy here.
Back in her studio we go back to jewelry, which is actually the reason that led us to Milan. Her
collection Chiodo with the different pieces made by hand and hand signed by her. You can only buy
it on YOOX.COM, online store of fashion, decoration and art, which celebrated their millionth order
last April 10th.
Sell ​jewelry online is very bold, don’t you think?
Shop on Internet amuses me a lot. I do it at YOOX.COM since 10 years ago. I remember that my
sister Turchese and I bought dresses. I still have one, all embroidered of a Japanese designer,
Akira, she went crazy with the Belgian Dries van Noten and Margiela. We did not care about the
fact they were of past seasons, if something is nice, who cares? Besides, you could return
everything within 10 days, but we do not return anything.
“NOWADAYS TO USE GOLD IS ANACHRONISTIC”
How did you create the Chiodo collection?
It arose in a casual way, in an old hardware store in Rome where they sell nails for one penny. I like
the symbolism and interesting connotations it has, and moreover it is the year of the punk revival,
the exhibition which is now at the MET in New York until August is dedicated to this stream... It's a
nice nod to studs and spikes.
You have just used bronze, why?
In this moment it's my favorite material. It is very versatile and ductile, it gives much play, it can be
opaque, satin... now gold is too expensive and anachronistic.
Do you have a special predilection for a piece when you design?
I love making necklaces, bracelets, earrings... but I find rings very difficult, I never measure
correctly. My customers come back five times to the workshop, with a smile, to make the
adjustment. Maybe that's why this collection has no rings.
(www.osannavisconti.com y YOOX.COM)
IN OSANNA’S WORKSHOP
“My parents have always collected art, my husband is the son of an art dealer and he has his own
collection. Since I was a child I had passion for special pieces.”
Her jewelry atelier in Milan. On the right wall, photographs by Ugo Mules to Lucio Fontana in his
studio, where Osanna’s husband has currently his art gallery, Studio Visconti (Corso Monforte 23,
Milan).
IN HER ATELIER: Jewelry and Home collection
Besides its sculptural designs, Osanna also designed a small collection for the house (bowls, coffee
spoons, serving utensils...) you can see them in her atelier in Via Santa Marta, 13. Milan.
STYLE CLASS
I do not like rules for wearing jewels. I love blending bronze with more important pieces, play with
the asymmetries depending of the mood of each day.
The DNA of my designs is sculptural.
June 2013
TELVA (Spain)
My jewelry fits with any fashion brand, but if I have to choose one, I'll stick with Bottega Veneta. I
adore Tomas Maier and his modern and female dresses, always with rigor and elegance that
fascinates me.
I do not usually use stones in my designs. I prefer to play with the ductility and versatility of metals.
Just a millimeter thick to completely change a piece.
My jewels are comfortable, funny and easy to wear. I do not believe that for being beautiful it is
necessary to suffer.
What I enjoy the most in the creative process is the wax model and see how the pieces come
together. The least? I find numbers are very boring.
Many of my friends, all of them very elegant, wear my jewelry. But perhaps Martina Mondadori is the
one who wears them with more passion.
Since a year ago, I also design a small home collection.
ONLY AT YOOX.COM