In May 2023 Edra Palazzo Durini played host to a photo shoot by Vanity Fair with photographer Francesco Pergolesi and styling by Simone Guidarelli for a special issue dedicated to Maria Callas and her birth centenary.

The magazine paid homage to the iconic opera singer by exploring her compelling personality in a preview of her personal wardrobe and the My Private Callas archive, a collection of more than 10,000 original objects and documents, with dresses, necklaces, letters, tiaras, posters, private objects, recipes and other memorabilia.

The special issue was an anticipation of Some Pieces from a Wardrobe. My Private Callas, an exhibition curated by Maria Luisa Frisa for Vanity Fair and held throughout June 2023 in the atmospheric spaces and gardens of Casa Flash Art in the historic Milanese building. The objects on display celebrated the art and life of 'La Diva'. 

Writing in the May 2023 issue of Vanity Fair, Simone Marchetti says, "on the stage of life [she] enthralled all, without exception. Many believe this was thanks to fashion,to  Biki the Milanese stylist seamstress and Audrey Hepburn. But in actual fact her references were all[often] men, preferably directors. even better if homosexuals: Luchino Visconti taught her everything. Pier Paolo Pasolini even made her fall in love. Like a vampire Maria drank on culture, beauty and life. She was a contemporary diva because she understood the only way to bring the past to life was to kill it with the present: she scandalised everyone because there was death, pain and rapture in every word she sang. Before Callas opera was dusty, mouldy 'spiegato' singing - as much sound as possible. After her, it became life, story and narrative - a succession of pain, joy and sadness and orgasms as never before".

Divided into sections the exhibition used pieces in the collection to recount highlights from Callas' private and public life: the dress she wore to the 1970 premiere at La Scala, the tiara for her part in the Paris Opera's 1965 Norma, elegant day dresses showing her refined style offstage, her letters and correspondence with Pier Paolo Pasolini. On a journey through La Diva's personal and professional history visitors were taken through an intimate weave of fashion, style and performance.

The day of the photo shoot, in the frescoed halls of Edra Palazzo Durini's piano nobile, mirrored surfaces framed fabulous dresses grouped in palettes, highlighting the textures of precious fabrics, and the garments' cut, line and detailed craftsmanship: qualities of timeless quality and beauty that are essential values in Edra's furnishing project. 

Laura Arrighi Architect with a PhD in Design, and freelance web writer and editor. She mainly works in interior decoration, design and fashion and has a special interest in the hybridization of different disciplines. She juggles writing, research, teaching and design, as she works for public institutions and some of the most important Italian architectural firms.