Walter Albini (1941‐1983) was a driving force in the fashion revolution of the 1960s and 70s, breaking with the atelier tradition, and designing modern Italian ready‐to‐wear for women and men. In this meticulously researched book, W Magazine Editor in Chief Stefano Tonchi and fashion curator Maria Luisa Frisa detail Albini’s influence as a designer, and give him the due that perhaps eluded him in his day.
Considered by many to be the “Italian Yves Saint Laurent”, Albini was a contemporary of Karl Lagerfeld, but also of Andy Warhol. Tonchi states in the book that Albini shared with Warhol “…a camp aesthetic, a stylized cult of the image and the idea of the artist—the fashion designer—as product, a brand to be consumed in the mass media market hungry for new idols and celebrities.” Walter Albini was the first Italian fashion designer as superstar—a flamboyant figure who cannily “…put himself on the pages, wearing his own clothes and posing with celebrities, anticipating a whole generation of Italian and foreign fashion designers who were to follow his example with success, from Giorgio Armani to Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce.”
