Anna Dello Russo at this weekend's sale. All images courtesy of Anna's Instagram

Anna Dello Russo’s fabulous fashion week sale

Designers, models and socialites flocked to a Milanese palazzo to see Anna bid goodbye to her archive

Milan Fashion Week tends to focus on the latest collections; however, this weekend, many chose to look back at, and buy items from, a remarkable clothing archive, belonging to an equally remarkable lady.

On Saturday 24 February the Italian fashion editor, social media star and Phaidon author Anna Dello Russo, auctioned off her own personal prêt-à-porter collection, to celebrate her life in fashion and her new publication AdR Book: Beyond Fashion, in a series of events.

 

Izabel Goulart in one of Anna's outfits, at this weekend's sale
Izabel Goulart in one of Anna's outfits, at this weekend's sale

The main draw was an invitation-only sale of 30 outfits hosted by Christie’s at a private palazzo on Milan’s Corso di Porta Romana. Models and muses, including Devon Windsor, Maria Borges, Izabel Goulart, Hadley Baldwin and Anna herself, paraded in outfits by Gianni Versace, Tom Ford for Gucci, Nicolas Ghesquière for Balenciaga, which were bid on by such prominent fashion-world figures as the designer Neil Barrett, who bought a Yohji Yamamoto coat, and the Swiss financier Carl Hirschmann, who raised his paddle for a Burberry trenchcoat.

 

 

This sale generated €147,000 for the Swarovski Foundation, which will benefit fashion students at London’s Central Saint Martins.

 

Anna's specially decorated palazzo
Anna's specially decorated palazzo

Meanwhile, online retailer Net-a-Porter, posted 150 of Anna’s more affordable items on its site; these varied from a €54.66 baseball cap through to an Alaïa leather trench coat for €929.04. Proceeds from this sale, which is ongoing (you can still browse available lots here), go towards the British Fashion Council Education Foundation.

 

The remarkable Anna Dello Russo cake
The remarkable Anna Dello Russo cake

Anna and her friends later enjoyed an incredible dinner party at the palazzo, which had been dressed with giant inflatable models of Anna, as well as the kind of festive lighting common in Anna’s home region of Puglia in southern Italy.

Diners, including Olivia Palermo, Cindy Bruna and Johannes Huebl, enjoyed traditional Pugliese dishes, as well as a beautiful cake in the shape of Anna, and after-dinner drinks of Fernet-Branca, before dancing the night away to the sounds of British DJ Jodie Harsh.

For a deeper dive into Anna’s fabulous fashion life order a copy of her book, AdR Book: Beyond Fashion, here.