Anna poses with Central Saint Martins students after her talk

Sustainability, shoes, celebrity and why a book should be like a magic box - Anna Dello Russo at Central Saint Martins

The editor turned social media star tells an eager crowd why she thinks paper’s still important

Anna Dello Russo breezed into Central Saint Martins yesterday flanked by two giant inflateable doppelgangers for a lively talk that took in sustainability, celebrity, shoes and the importance of a good magazine collection. 

Anna, who donated a portion of the money raised by her recent clothes auction to Saint Martins, told the audience that it had been a dream of hers when she was a young girl to one day attend the school. "Yes, ever since I was a kid. I moved to Milan but my dream was to come here."

We'll be bringing you the best bits of her talks at Saint Martins, at Annabels nightclub and Conde Nast College over the next couple of days on Phaidon.com 

But we're going to start at the end of her talk yesterday. Like any good fashionista, she left us at the end with something as memorable as her entrance, closing on a great piece of advice for the fashion students who crammed into the venue's LVMH Theatre. And that was: Buy dR Book: Beyond Fashion! This is what she had to say:

"I say it because I used to collect magazines but to me it seems not many people buy magazines now. So if you want to do your research it’s much better to buy this book.

 

Anna after the talk
Anna after the talk

"When we finished the book I gave Lucas the art director on it my entire collection of Vogue. He still uses lots of papers and likes to work with the different references he said that’s the best thing ever! Because for him this kind of research and inspiration is important. 

"I tell my assistants, you should be prepared and come with a mood board. They say OK we’ll go on the internet – buy you won’t find anything on the internet! So now if you don’t buy magazines how can you do the research?" Which is where  AdR Book: Beyond Fashion fits in, according to Anna.

"It’s easier to buy the book and and it can serve this purpose. My book is a completely different thing - a magic box and my way to talk about fashion for the kids. The kids are very intelligent but they never want to be bored. With my book you can read, you can stop, you can make a paper doll you can do a flip walk. It’s a way to entertain you. It’s very interactive!"

 

Anna's book signing kit on the table at Central Saint Martins
Anna's book signing kit on the table at Central Saint Martins

Check back in the coming days for more stories from Anna’s time in London. Meanwhile taste a bit of the Anna magic by taking a look at AdR Book: Beyond Fashion here.

AdR Book: Beyond Fashion
AdR Book: Beyond Fashion