Adorable Story #57: Luciana Pignatelli

The Swan of Santa Marinella

“Men often tell you the best thing for skin is making love. I cannot say that I have always found the quality of their skin to be convincing evidence.” 

— Princess Luciana Pignatelli

1963: Princess Luciana Pignatelli wearing an Aurora chinchilla by Frederica and hairstyle by Mr. Gregory of Kenneth — Photo © by Magnum Photos

Luciana Malgeri Pignatelli (January 13, 1935 – October 13, 2008) was an early Italian socialite, with an irreverent, witty and charming personality and sense of humour. She wrote a book with beauty advices for women and was an early spokesmodel for Camay soap in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Finally, she experimented as a jewellery designer while working across Asia.

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Born Luciana Malgeri, she was the daughter of journalist Francesco Malgeri (very close to the Italian fascist regime of the 30s) and his wife, the Italian-Brazilian Nelida Lenci, previously Countess Crespi (widow of the late Count Dino Crespi).

Luciana had two half-brothers, Marco Fabio Crespi and Count Rodolfo “Rudi” Crespi, husband of Vogue editor Consuelo Crespi (featured extensively in the Adorable Story #50).

Marriages

On 20 June 1954, Luciana Malgeri married Prince Don Nicolò Maria Pignatelli Aragon Cortès (May 22, 1923 – November 29, 2021), 17th Prince of Noia (his title, one of a string held by the family, derived from the Kingdom of Aragon).

Prince Nicolò Pignatelli was a Gulf Oil executive and business advisor.

At 19 years old, she became Princess Luciana Pignatelli.

The couple had two children:

• Princess Donna Fabrizia (born 30 January 1956), married to Stephen Fiamma; and

• Prince Don Diego (born 21 May 1958), a Group Managing Director of UBS until 2016 and subsequently Partner of Greentech Capital Advisors.

She recalled the union with Prince Nicolò a “brilliant match” but also that marriage “stuffs the two of you so close together you can see love dying all over the walls.”

Luciana Pignatelli, Peter Gimbel, and Consuelo Crespi at the Black & White Ball hosted by writer Truman Capote at the Plaza Hotel in New York City on November 28, 1966. The masquerade ball gathered 540 attendees to honor Capote's friend and Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham and is considered a pinnacle of New York's social history — Photo © by Lawrence Fried / Iconicimages.com

In 1966, Princess Luciana attended the Black & White Ball to honor the Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham.

Truman Capote described Luciana as “impossibly serene and lovely,” with “every strand of golden hair just so”.

Marella Agnelli e Luciana Pignatelli on the former’s boat, La Leopolda, on July 1st, 1962 — Photo © by Henry Clarke

The marriage between Luciana and Don Nicolò was annulled in 1968.

In 1970, Luciana Pignatelli married Burt Simms Avedon, then the president of Eve of Roma (a beauty product company that would be later sold to the Gillette conglomerate), a cousin of the photographer Richard Avedon. By this marriage she acquired three stepdaughters.

“My ill-fated marriage”

Luciana and Burt divorced in 1980.

Beauty advices

Her most famous book, published in 1970, is The Beautiful People’s Beauty Book.

Sixteen of her beauty advices (some witty, some downright ironic) are:

1. Trade men in for a meal: “When you have to watch calories, it is much easier if you eat alone. This does not mean you should give up men's company, but ideally, you should have a man who is not always around.”