Where there is Alda Balestra Stauffenberg, there is life. The septuagenarian attracts people with energy, curiosity and sophistication. When she speaks, she rambles, interrupts herself repeatedly, follows spontaneous thoughts that seem to carry her away, and leads her listeners along winding paths to what she really wants to say. With a warm voice and an Italian accent, lots of humor, but also pride for what he has experienced and accomplished.
It’s a lot: in 1970, at just 16 years old, she was crowned Miss Italy, had an international career as a model, became a big name on the fashion circuit, was a friend of Valentino Garavani, inspired Gianni Versace as a muse, then became a mother of two children and has since worked as a journalist, producer and curator.
After working in New York and Paris, he found a home in Berlin in the 2000s. At the time she moved to the Spree with her husband, the photographer and artist Franz von Stauffenberg, and their two children. But she has never forgotten her homeland: ”I have lived in big cities for most of my life, but at heart I am a provincial girl. This is another reason why she recently created a second home in her homeland , northern Italy”. port city of Trieste.
Enter Giorgia Rapezzi
Once she left there to conquer the world as a model. Her first jobs took her to Florence, where the designer Giorgia Rapezzi introduced her to Gianni Versace, got her an agency (“before I didn’t even know what it was”) and was chosen for a six-page advert for her brand Giorgia Fashion booked on Italian “Vogue”: the beginning of a great career with appearances for Versace, Valentino, Armani, Saint Laurent, Moschino and Mugler, in front of the cameras of Irving Penn, Oliviero Toscani and Paolo Roversi.
A sought-after model like her was even able to gain a few kilograms without immediately losing orders. «The fashion community was like a family to me». This is how friendships were born, for example with Valentino Garavani. The model and the designer worked together for 15 years. Until Balestra Stauffenberg decided to get married, start a family and put an end to her modeling career.
“When I saw the dress, I knew it was perfect!”
To say goodbye she went to see her stylists, obviously including Valentino. He asked her if she already had a wedding dress. She said no and he offered to look at his archives. “When I saw the dress, I knew: it was perfect!” The perfect dress comes from Valentino’s 1989 Hoffmann collection, the last one to show in Rome: “It represents his farewell to Rome and my farewell to the world of modeling”.
The champagne and pink tones of the dress, designed as an evening gown with intricate floral embroidery on the chest and sleeves, reflect the colors of the church in Bavaria where the wedding took place. “It was a Cinderella moment. I felt like I was wearing a second skin – only high fashion can do that. But I didn’t realize how perfect the dress was that day because I was so nervous.
It’s good that I was able to look at the dress in detail this spring and that opportunity will arise again soon. The Valentino dress is now part of the archive of the ITS Arcademy – Museum of Art in Fashion in Trieste. “When you think of fashion in Italy, you think of Milan, Florence, maybe Rome, but not Trieste,” Balest
The important ITS jury
The International Talent Support Arcademy, or ITS for short, has been supporting young designers since 2002. High-level juries, including Franca Sozzani, Marina Abramovic and Raf Simons, chose Demna Gvasalia and Aitor Throup as winners of the annual international competition.
From the archive to the exhibition: The dress can be seen in the exhibition “The many lives of a garment” at the ITS Arcademy – Museum of Art in Fashion in Trieste.ITS Arcademy – Museum of Art in FashionSince 2023, the museum has made competition entries available to the public and selected individual objects, such as her wedding dress. She had the idea herself. “Valentino gave me a note saying he hoped the dress would last for generations. Now generations of students and stakeholders can see it.”
On rotation, the museum displays dresses with a special history in the exhibition “The many lives of a dress”, curated by Olivier Saillard and Emanuele Coccia and open until January 2025. From December onwards
Does she, whose marriage ended in Berlin, feel something like melancholy when she sees the dress? The answer fits her life-affirming attitude: “Of course it’s wonderful to grow old with a partner, but I haven’t been so lucky. This is also why independence is so important to me. I stopped modeling, but I never stopped working.”
He is currently responsible for public relations for the Berlin-based company Urban Scents, which has just moved to Trieste. Her perfume is also in the works. “It’s a great gift to have so many opportunities.” Perhaps a gift, but certainly also a merit.
“The multiple lives of a garment”. ITS Arcademy Museum of Art in Fashion, Trieste, until 6 January 2025
Ding dress, are now showcased in exhibitions that explore the interplay between fashion, art, and design. This initiative aims to highlight the importance of fashion history and the contributions of iconic figures in the industry.