LEOPARDESSA

LEOPARDESSA is Jessica Harris and Mariaelena Masetti...

laguardarobadirobespierre — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:59:00 -0400

LEOPARDESSA is Jessica Harris and Mariaelena Masetti Zannini

photography: Pascal Pino
location: Via Casilina Vecchia, Rome.
June 2012

all clothing: LEOPARDESSA

a little piece of the LEOPARDESSA history...

laguardarobadirobespierre — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:14:00 -0400

edited out of an article about Rome for Berlin’s JPeople magazine…
something to remember the crazy/sweet 2+ years of the ‘LEOPARDESSA boutique’ by…’what happened before the brand…’
(LEOPARDESSA boutique opened in Rome’s rione Monti on Via Panisperna on May 28th 2010 and closed on October 1st 2012)…

written by Tess Amodeo Vickery:

‘As I’m frantically getting things in order for the music video I’m shooting next week for my upcoming album, The Rough Soul, my first stop is to seek advice on my look from glam girl and good friend, Jessica Harris. A rising design star and fellow ex-pat, Jessica and I met during our first Alta Roma/Alta Moda fashion week in 2010. Typical of her hybrid aesthetic and unorthodox brand-promotion, the result of constant globe-trotting between Paris, Berlin and Rome with artist-boyfriend Fabio Campagna, Jessica’s collection did not premiere on the runway, but rather at a pop-up studio in Rome’s Jewish Ghetto. A leggy model was posing alla Marilyn in the doorway with a fan blowing a long, pleated, silk crepe shroud that would have made Courtney Love swoon if she ever went through a Cher-phase. It was love at first click of Jessica’s analogue Canon EOS she was using to document the event alongside fashion photographer, Susi Belianska.

“Have you seen the movie “Juliet of the Spirits”?” Jessica asks me as she swings from the oversized velvet swing hanging in Leopardessa, her showroom in Rome’s avant-garde fashion district, Monti. “It’s my favorite Fellini film,” she continues as her mischievous eyes glance towards a static TV from the 1960’s buzzing atop a pile of old fashion magazines. In fact, all the furniture in the boutique is supported by stacks of vintage Vogues. “This,” she kicks a spindly leg out to present her shop, “Came from that. That, and Dada.”

Each month, she and her partner, playwright Mariaelena Masetti Zannini, host installations, vernissages and travelling pop-up stores. Leopardessa opened in 2010 and grew into a cult happening in Rome, thanks to the eclectic combination of surrealist Mariaelena’s theatrical fabric selection and Jessica’s art direction, inspired by drama, folly, love and dreams. I see a pair of two-tiered flares with old English lutes printed on a bordeaux background that I have to own. She tells me I’ll have to wait until her ninth collection for her eponymous label comes out this fall.

Jessica is the perfect choice to get the wheels turning about the image I want to project as Ama Deo, my stage alias. As a jazz singer, I’ve been on the scene in Rome for years, fronting Tess & the Yellow Cabbies and Bixilander Swing Orchestra, but as a singer/songwriter putting my original music out there, I’m a freshman.

Jessica is a seasoned veteran, who is currently collaborating with burgeoning indie talent Actually, an acid rock-meets-bubblegum pop explosion of i-Pod and voice. I saw Actually perform one of Fanfulla 101’s final shows before closing its doors and a chapter of Roman underground history this past summer. Thrusting against a large styrofoam “A” in a jeweled diadem and six-inch platforms while singing in her ethereal seductress style, I, along with the other 80-odd groundhogs wedged between the bar, foosball table and cave-like walls, was mesmerized.’

(pic by Lars Moereels. Backstage of look book shoot for LEOPARDESSA’s first collection at Jpeople magazine’s office, Berlin 2012. Model: Leona Pipapo)

*** wearenotgirls: Leopardessa SS13 Shot by Lars Moereels

laguardarobadirobespierre — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 13:15:41 -0400

***

wearenotgirls:

Leopardessa SS13
Shot by Lars Moereels

LEOPARDESSA is Jessica Harris & Mariaelena Masetti Zannini

laguardarobadirobespierre — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:29:00 -0400

(pic: Cinotti Photography)

LEOPARDESSA now available at VALERIA boutique Brescia,...

laguardarobadirobespierre — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 07:30:00 -0500

LEOPARDESSA

now available at

VALERIA boutique
Brescia, Italy

www.valeriabrescia.com

Photography: Viola Rolando Model: Laura Gigante Concept:...

laguardarobadirobespierre — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:19:00 -0500

Photography: Viola Rolando
Model: Laura Gigante
Concept: Mariaelena Masetti Zannini & Jessica Harris

Leopardessa SS’13 Specchio d’una trama...

laguardarobadirobespierre — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 03:41:11 -0500

Leopardessa
SS’13

Specchio d’una trama aragosta nell’ovale madreperla, Chi Essere Tu? Una Lana che nel regno diviene taffetà o la piuma dimenticata a terra dall’uccello del paradiso?

photography : lars moereels.
location: studio chérie
model: caro bruchman
make-up/hair: franziska gottschlich
+ thanks to nina byttebier and bianca softshock
berlin, 2012.

WHEN night is almost done, And sunrise grows so near That we...

laguardarobadirobespierre — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 05:20:00 -0500

WHEN night is almost done,
And sunrise grows so near
That we can touch the spaces,
It ’s time to smooth the hair

And get the dimples ready,
And wonder we could care
For that old faded midnight
That frightened but an hour.
-E. Dickinson

***

laguardarobadirobespierre — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 21:00:00 -0500

***

postcard from santa monica -leopardessa

laguardarobadirobespierre — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 18:11:16 -0500

postcard from santa monica
-leopardessa

…

laguardarobadirobespierre — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 10:31:28 -0500

…

…backstage berlin 2012 studio cherie

laguardarobadirobespierre — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 10:27:32 -0500

…backstage
berlin 2012
studio cherie

from LONE WOLF magazine in print January 2012

laguardarobadirobespierre — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 12:16:32 -0500

from LONE WOLF magazine
in print
January 2012

LEOPARDESSA ss 13 @ cargo al pigneto in allestimento fino al 20...

laguardarobadirobespierre — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 12:13:09 -0500

LEOPARDESSA
ss 13
@ cargo al pigneto
in allestimento fino al 20 Gennaio

María de los Dolores Asúnsolo y López Negrete

laguardarobadirobespierre — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 12:10:07 -0500

María de los Dolores Asúnsolo y López Negrete

E un bel dì piovvero glitter……l’occhio giallo non si bagnò ma il...

laguardarobadirobespierre — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 19:49:00 -0500

E un bel dì piovvero glitter……l’occhio giallo non si bagnò ma il punto nero rimase fisso in alto Su , verso il cielo bagnato.
Lo voleva baciare.
L’etere rispose che al momento il suo colore non era adatto per spingersi tanto oltre.
Leopardessa divenne Triste Triste e il Suo volto improvvisamente si spinse a terra.
Decise allora che era giunto per Lei il momento di dipingere uno specchio , così che il cielo sarebbe stato obbligato a risplendere di luce riflessa e decidersi, finalmente, a cambiare colore.
L’arcobaleno si metallizzò mentre uno stuolo di farfalle gialle, attraversandolo, divennero blu.
V’erano stralci di foglie di vite volanti e api dorate addormentate sulle nuvole.
Leopardessa, intanto, contemplava l’alta poetica del mondo mentre una lacrima di cristallo stava già iniziando a bussare sulla sua re(è)tina d’incanto.
Leopardessa ehillallà…..Ella sta ancora là.
Ebbene sì,Leopardessa non ha mai realmente camminato .O forse si.Nella sua sospensione muoveva mondi decollando a circa due centimentri e tre quarti dal molle terriccio.
Persino del cemento armato aveva paura, per questo motivo cercava pace saltellando di universo in costellazione.
Talvolta sentiva ridere le api e quando il brusio si faceva Opera Lei ruotava fra le danze.
Accadde precisamente nell’anno dove gli antichi volevano chiudere le porte al mappamondo.
Lei si sedette sulla sfera di plastica che divenne cristallo,entrò dentro il paese più vicino al suo centro e si immerse nel blu dipinto di blu.
Fumò il tabacco di spirito, ed inebriandosi del suo nettare cadde dal filo del rasoio finendo nel mercato di tessuti di-disoriente.
Le girava tanto la testa e continuava a parlare con il suo orecchio ripetendo a se stessa che il suo occhio non avrebbe ruotato certamente meno di un caleidoscopio.
Non aveva senso.
Tutti i colori del cosmo le si incollavano addosso.(D’altronde, profumava ancora di miele)
Ma l’unico grande dramma rimaneva risolvere il suo interno.Per rimanerne in ascolto.
Tanto per Lei-denoniminata Ella-sentirsi appiccicate addosso delle immagini era come rivedersi in un film.
Normale.
Ma torniamo a oggi.
Peccato dimenticare che Leopardessa sia dotata di un cuore di diamanti e un cervello da Paradisee.
Dentro di sé ha petali e lacrime luminose , non organi musicali.
Dentro di sé non ha foglie e dentini da latte, ma pergamene gelosamente custodite da drappi in lamè.
Dentro di sé ha tutta la meraviglia del creato, non fulminei slanci di un temporale passeggero.
Lei non piove mai,ma assorbe,bevendo il latte delle sirene dell’isola che c’è.
Di tutto punto di bianco vestita Ella si colora nel batik d’atmosfere dove Ella si macchia d’una pelle per cui Ella diviene Ella per poi infine abbandonarsi al numero scelto appositamente per Ella dal coreografo con la pipa che talvolta vorrebbe essere Ella.
Ella,ehillallà,così semplicemente trasmuta.
Dal rosso al verde per avvinghiarsi nella pellicola.

work in progress…

laguardarobadirobespierre — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 19:46:53 -0500

work in progress…

Specchio d’una trama aragosta nell’ovale...

laguardarobadirobespierre — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 08:00:39 -0500

Specchio d’una trama aragosta nell’ovale madreperla,
Chi Essere Tu?
Una Lana che nel regno diviene taffetà
o la piuma dimenticata a terra dall’uccello del paradiso?

LEOPARDESSA coat of arms

laguardarobadirobespierre — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 09:06:00 -0400

by
Nataly Kukula Abramovich
www.kukulaland.com

shrimps ! c’est génial ! giaguaro !...

laguardarobadirobespierre — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:53:48 -0400

shrimps ! c’est génial ! giaguaro ! Wunderbar ! Avanguardia pura !

LEOPARDESSA lent a paw to style the Roman leg of Actually’s euro mini tour
In anticipation of the new collection of the brand of her own name by LEOPARDESSA designer Jessica Harris.

The collection is titled ‘9’.
The look book was photographed in Rome ( at Eroina with thanks to Fabio Campagna & along via Casilina Vecchia) by Glaza Kinski and was modeled by Actually Huizenga. ‘9’ will be presented in July 2012.

*above picture by Glaza Kinski
Fanfulla 101, Pigneto (Rome) 12/6/2012

Actually is wearing:
-Embroidered belly dancing bra from Mikki abbigliamento, piazza Vittorio
-Gold lame’ dress in hand
LEOPARDESSA’S pillole
(vintage re-made)
-Underwear & platform shoes
Actually’s own
-Giant white A & plastic flowers
from Mercatino at Porta Maggiore
- (not photograhed) white lace jumpsuit
from Mariaelena Masetti Zannini’s archive

www.jessicaharris.net
www.glazakinski.com
www.actuallyactually.com

gambero loves you !