“Gia was seventeen in 1977, when I first saw her at the Mudd Club, a rock-and-roll joint where Debbie Harry of Blondie used to hang out. She looked like a biker in a studded black leather jacket, cowboy boots, and no make-up. I couldn’t believe how beautiful she was. She told me she had just arrived from Philadelphia and was doing a little modeling though it wasn’t really what she wanted to do. Later I met her again at Ara Gallant’s house, which wasn’t surprising because Ara’s house was a cool meeting place for new beauties in town. There was something about Gia that attracted me to her, and we became friends, though she was always evasive and mysterious.” Diane Von Furstenberg, Diane: A Signature Life.
