(by Francesca Proietti Cosimi) Marella Agnelli Caracciolo di Castagneto, designer and art collector, was born in Florence on 4 May 1927. Marella had married the lawyer in 1953 in Strasbourg. Mother of Edoardo and Margherita Agnelli, she had eight grandchildren (all children of Margherita): the brothers John and Lapo, Ginevra, Pietro, Sofia, Maria, Anna and Tatiana. The last five grandchildren are children of Margaret's marriage to Serge de Pahlen, while the first three come from her first marriage to Alain Elkann.
Marella's father, Filippo Caracciolo Principe di Castagneto, an essayist and diplomat writer, at the end of World War II was appointed as Under Secretary of State and subsequently held the position of Secretary General of the Council of Europe; his mother, Margaret Clarke, was born in Illinois. After having followed her studies and obtained her diploma in Switzerland, Marella Agnelli attended the 'Académie des Beaux-Arts' and then 'the Académie Julian' in Paris. He later began his activity as a photographer in New York as assistant to Erwin Blumenfeld.
Returning to Italy, she collaborated as an editor and photographer for Condé Nast. The following year, in 1953, the marriage with Giovanni Agnelli. In 1973, at the request of the famous fabric factory in Switzerland Abraham Zumsteg, he created a series of designs for furnishing fabrics. This was followed by the collections in Italy for the Ratti Company of Como, in France for the Steiner factories, in the United States for Martex and numerous collections for Marshall Field's. She continued her activity as a designer for the Ratti company in Como. In 1977 he obtained the Oscar of design in the United States with the 'Product Design Award of the Resources Council Inc.'
She died at 92 years, in her house in Turin.
Donna Marella will remain an icon and an example of a woman who has always distinguished herself in life