Marpessa

Mannequin and top model, who left her hometown of Amsterdam at the age of 16. She moved to Milan to make her dream of becoming a model come true. She soon had her first photo shoots and found fame and friends. Later she went to France and the United States, where she worked on the runway for Chanel, Lagerfeld, and Alaïa, and appeared on the covers of Vogue, Elle, Madame Figaro, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Photo, and Harpers & Queen. In 1987, the photographer Ferdinando Scianna chose her for the first Dolce & Gabbana catalog. She struck up a friendship with the two designers, which resulted in a publication, Marpessa, un racconto, in 1993. Marpessa has worked for photographers such as Weber, Newton, and Ritts and received a fashion Oscar for the best runway model in 1988. In 1994 she gave up full-time modeling but fashioned remained her passion. In 1996 she appeared in a television advertisement for D, the weekly women’s supplement of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. In the same year, Vogue Germany dedicated a monograph to her.