Luciana Pignatelli

Luciana Malgeri Pignatelli (13 January 1935 – 13 October 2008)[1][2] was an early Italian beauty, with an irreverent, witty and charming personality and sense of humour, early spokesmodel for Camay soap in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and latterly a jewellery designer.[1]

Background
Villa La Saracena in Santa Marinella, gifted to Luciana Pignatelli by her father, the journalist Francesco Malgeri, and designed by architect Luigi Moretti.[3] Photo by Paolo Monti, 1957.

Born Luciana Malgeri, she was the daughter of journalist Francesco Malgeri and his wife, the Italian-Brazilian Nelida Lenci, previously Countess Crespi (widow of the late Count Dino Crespi). She had two half-brothers, Count Rodolfo Crespi and Marco Fabio Crespi,[1][4] husband of Vogue editor Consuelo Crespi.

Marriages

On 20 June 1954, Luciana Malgeri married Prince Don Nicolò Maria Pignatelli Aragon Cortès (born 22 May 1923 – 2021), 17th Prince of Noia,[5] a Gulf Oil executive. (The title, one of a string held by the family, derives from the Kingdom of Aragon.) The marriage was annulled in 1968. The couple had two children: Princess Donna Fabrizia (born 30 January 1956), married to Stephen Fiamma; and Prince Don Diego (born 21 May 1958), a Group Managing Director of UBS until 2016 and subsequently Partner of Greentech Capital Advisors, formerly married to Cristina Prandoni Porta and subsequently to Francesca Scarsini, who passed away in 2010. Margherita was born from his first marriage (7th October 1989), now married to Jake Sloane and with a son, Ottavio Pignatelli Sloane.[4]

In 1970, Luciana Pignatelli married Burt Simms Avedon, then the president of Eve of Roma, a cousin of the photographer Richard Avedon. By this marriage she acquired three stepdaughters. They divorced circa 1980.[4]

Books and career

As Princess Luciana Pignatelli, she was the author of The Beautiful People's Beauty Book (McCall, 1970), which was described as "a straightforward approach to narcissism".[6] As Luciana Avedon, she was the author of The Beautiful People's Diet Book (Bantam, 1973) and Luciana Avedon's Body Book (Henry Holt, 1976). All three books were co-written with Jeanne Molli.

In the 1970s, as Luciana Pignatelli, she became the spokesperson for the soap Camay, appearing in U.S. and international television commercials.

Pignatelli was the European fashion coordinator of Eve of Roma, a cosmetics company.[4]

In her last years, she became a jewellery designer, travelling twice yearly from her home in London to the Bangkok workshops of Rolf von Bueren, a German noble who established Lotus Arts de Vivre, a leading jewellery and objet d’art company in Thailand.[7]

Honors

She was named to the International Best-Dressed List in 1966.[8]

Death

In October 2008, Pignatelli Avedon died by suicide, after many years of battling depression."[9]

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Luciana Pignatelli.
  1. Mary Tannen, "Why We Love Fashion? It's a Challenge—An Unfinished Woman", The New York Times, 23 February 2003
  2. "Mirror, Mirror", Time, 15 March 1971
  3. "Reportage. La Saracena di Luigi Moretti has been recently restored by the latest owner" (in Italian). Retrieved 2018-04-28.
  4. "Burt Avedon is Fiancé of Luciana Pignatelli", The New York Times, 3 April 1970
  5. "Nicolò Maria Pignatelli Aragona Cortés, 17th prince of Noia, * 1923 | Geneall.net". geneall.net. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
  6. "Modern Living: Mirror, Mirror". Time. 1971-03-15. Archived from the original on March 30, 2008.
  7. McHugh, Fionnuala Personal touch for fancy pieces, South China Morning Post 3 May 1998; http://www.scmp.com/article/239307/personal-touch-fancy-pieces
  8. "Best-Dressed Women of the Year Named", The New York Times, 14 January 1966
  9. Amiel, Barbara Who Will Give In To Despair Is A Mystery, Macleans 25 February 2009;
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