Anna Piaggi tribute: RIP, the original punk grandmother

The woman who could out-Gaga, Lady Gaga ANY day is the original punk grandmother, Anna Piaggi. She died overnight, and here are some of her looks [and read on for more on this fashion legend]:

Muse and friend of fashion's envelope pushers: Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano, and Zandra Rhodes:

Anna Piaggi, an Italian Vogue editor, died at age 81 and leaves an eclectic wardrobe of more than 2000 dresses and a legacy as the most eccentric dresser of the sometimes-staid fashion establishment. 

With hats were too big or too small, coloured hair, a neck draped in dyed fur and myriad other finishes, she was the queen of the clash - nobody mixed prints to great effect like Piaggi did.

She topped it off with coloured canes, but most importantly: nothing was ever matchy-matchy.

Most didn't 'get it', but those in the industry revered her.

Karl Lagerfeld sketched 10 years’ worth of Piaggi in her outfits in his journal. Hat-maker Stephen Jones considered her his muse, as did shoe designer Manolo Blahnik, and New York Times street style photographer Bill Cunningham featured her in his documentary “Bill Cunningham New York.”

Bill photographed Piaggi throughout her career, and in he wrote about her: ”Fashion, which often parades as art, can genuinely be called an art form as seen on Ms. Piaggi. She creates her own special environment, and it's not meant to be imitated."

In her early career, Piaggi worked as a translator for an Italian publishing company Mondadori, and then as writer for fashion magazines including Vogue Italia, and the avant garde magazine Vanity. Renowned for her double page spreads in the Italian Vogue, she was given free expression in a montage of images and text, and her layouts become her trademark.

She was always front and centre at catwalk shows of the biggest global fashion shows, and she made sure she always looked the part.

She once said: "I have always liked to mix my look. Every dress tells a story. I am very careful about how I look. I never appear anywhere without make-up on. In fact, I never even go out of my bedroom without make-up. I never wear the same thing twice in public. I love hats and I love little canes and binoculars. It looks like everything is just put together in a haphazard way — but no, it is very carefully thought out. Karl Lagerfeld once held a ball and the theme was Venetian and everyone was dressing as Doges but I decided to go as a fishwife. I balanced a wicker basket on my head filled with seaweed and crabs and I hung two pigeons I'd bought from the butcher round my neck but at midnight they started to bleed so I had to leave like Cinderella!"

RIP Anna Piaggi - your unique, kooky sense of style will be missed.