Before Italian beauty Elisabetta Dessy was a top model for the Gucci family and Valentino in the 70s and 80s, she was captain of her Olympic swimming team. Soon after her discovery moment in Sardinia, Dessy’s career took off and she was a part of a pinnacle time for Italian brands’ expansion in the international fashion space, walking for Versace, Fendi, Giorgio Armani, and many others. After a hiatus from the industry, Dessy reflects on her comeback, securing campaigns with Zara and Tod’s, and the nostalgia of returning to Valentino for their fall couture show in Rome.
Staying Power is an ongoing series celebrating models who have spent at least a decade working at the top of the industry. Through a selection of their most significant images, these household names and cult fashion favorites tell their stories.
Introduction by Anire Ikomi
Zara, Civitavecchia, 2022
Photographed by Mariano Schoendorff
This Zara campaign happened by chance. I usually travel constantly on business, and lately, I spend a lot of my time in the United States. I happened to be in Rome and I received a call in the evening from my d’management booker. A casting director had seen a photo of me on social media and immediately tried to track me down; his name was Alexis Ocon, an extremely nice guy and a great professional to work with. By sheer chance, I was in Rome at that moment and Zara was shooting its campaign in a magnificent villa in Civitavecchia, a seaside resort not far from Rome. Cutting a long story short, during the current sale period, you can see my video looped in 340 stores and on Zara’s official website; you see me arriving at the door and making a beckoning gesture as if to invite people to enter the brand’s stores (both online and offline). Believe me, it’s pure GENIUS.
Arena, 1976
This was my first real photo shoot. I was just 17 years old and I hadn’t started modeling yet. I was getting ready to leave for the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games. Back then, I was the captain of the national swimming team, even though I was one of the youngest athletes. I can still remember the sheer excitement of every hectic day dealing with school exams, training sessions, and preparations for my trip to Canada. Swimming was an exceptionally strenuous sport, it took up most of my day and this shoot took place early one morning before a training session.
The Olympics were a truly incredible experience, although in those days, we were competing against a number of East German athletes who made it very difficult to win a place in the final, let alone win a medal. I gave up swimming immediately after the Olympic Games and that summer, while I was in Sardinia, I was approached by an agent who worked for John Casablancas and who had already seen this photo but had no idea how to contact me. Just a few weeks later, there I was in front of a young Valentino himself in Via Gregoriana for a fitting, and that is how my career took off.
Roberto Cavalli, 2021
Photographed by Max Vadukul
I remember this moment extremely well, mainly because of the quality of the work and the outstanding people I had the honour of meeting. Fausto Puglisi had recently been appointed as Roberto Cavalli‘s new creative director and was launching his ZERO collection. The photographer was Max Vadukul, a person who immediately put us at ease, and with whom we worked for two days achieving excellent results. It was a fantastic job and the rest of the team, from Jhonattan Burjack to Mark Vanderloo, all proved to be really great pros. This campaign, which featured Roberto Cavalli’s new soul, played an important role in my comeback in the fashion industry. In fact, the campaign photos and videos were constantly looped in every corner of the planet. The images of the campaign were everywhere, at airports, in the streets, along with all the Cavalli flagship stores worldwide. A moving episode that comes to mind was when my son Aldo wrote to me saying how proud he was, as he had just arrived at the Milan Malpensa airport and seen my photograph on the main terminal billboard.
Gucci, 1977
In this photo, I’m in Hong Kong at a trunk show for Gucci. I remember the photographers and clients all around the runway, exceptionally stylish women with such graceful manners. At the time, the Gucci brand was already a huge sensation abroad. This was my first work trip to Asia and I still have distinct memories of my first encounter with a country so very different from my own, a distant continent with new, unique, and fascinating customs and traditions.
The Gucci brand played a key role in my career. After starting as a house model for Valentino in Via Gregoriana, that same year a colleague of mine, Heidi, introduced me to the Gucci brand in Via Condotti. I walked my first real fashion show abroad for Gucci and in Italy, the first one was with Valentino. At the time, the whole Gucci family worked for the company, each with a distinctive role. I often and regularly walked for this brand thanks to Chantal Skibinska, Aldo Gucci’s right-hand person, who was in charge of external relations and the fashion collections. Chantal was a woman with remarkable class, and everyone considered her a true powerhouse at the maison. It’s thanks to her that I worked for so many years with Gucci.
Valentino Haute Couture, 2022
A few days have gone by but I still haven’t fully grasped the extent of the incredible experience I was so lucky to enjoy. Walking down the famous 135 Spanish Steps built in 1725 and designed by Specchi and De Sanctis was very exciting. In the past, there have been many fashion shows held in key locations in the city of Rome. Piazza di Spagna, Piazza Navona, Altare della Patria were just some of the locations used in the 80s and 90s for Rome’s haute couture shows. Pierpaolo, the heir to the king of couture, Valentino, who from the very beginning was able to reinterpret the allure of the brand with a contemporary twist, achieved something quite out of the ordinary and insisted I play a part in it. In fact, I had the privilege and honor of being the only model to attend the fitting in Rome at Palazzo Mignanelli, Valentino’s historic seat. The emotions I felt as I walked down those 135 steps are impossible to put into words. The press, the haute couture clients, my daughter Aurora and my son Aldo and thousands and thousands of Roman citizens, my fellow citizens, were all there to admire these outfits created by the most talented women/dressmakers I have ever known. My super sparkly gown was made entirely of gleaming silver threads and perfectly matched the chic and elegant style of this historic Roman maison. I think this will remain one of those key moments in my life, one that I will never forget. Thank you, Pierpaolo!
