Francesco Vezzoli. Diva?

Francesco Vezzoli’s work revels in the power of nostalgia, fame, and sorrow, threading cinema, embroidery, and art history into a singular, melancholic vision. His bejeweled tears—stitched onto the faces of film and fashion’s great icons—transform heartbreak into ornament, elevating sorrow to spectacle. Edited by Shai Baitel, the book traces Vezzoli’s engagement with visual history, from the golden age of Italian cinema to the devotional traditions of religious iconography. Through film, needlework, and performance, he reframes longing and loss as a conceptual thread linking cultural memory with contemporary image-making. Francesco Vezzoli: Diva? is a study in beauty, artifice, and catharsis.