BIG hair, bold make-up and piles of bling: 80s stars revealed in all their gaudy glory in book celebrating snapper Mario Casilli
- Playboy's Mario, from Ohio, shot 80s stars as well as Playmates
- New self-titled book features cast shots of 80's most famous TV shows
- Musicians and movie stars also feature in £24.95 coffee-table read
- Photographer died aged 71 in 2002
By DENI KIRKOVA
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It was the decade of Dynasty, Dallas, shoulder pads and excess in all forms. Big was beautiful, greed was good, and beauty was bold.
Popular television series', films and music reflected the 1980s trend for beautiful people living extraordinary lives.
And cult photographer Mario Casilli captured those mesmerising subjects at their best, defining forever the look of 80s pop culture through his soft focus lens.
Joan Collins is the cover star of a new book dedicated to 1980s photographer Mario Casilli. She writes in the forword: 'Mario captured absolute glamour'
Stars like Joan Collins adored him for making them look fabulous, and his amazing photography is now immortalised in a spectacular coffee table book.
Joan, now 80, even wrote the foreword for the tome: 'I don't think any photographer today has managed to capture a decade in the way that Mario captured the absolute glamour and decadence in his 1980s photographs.'
As a young photographer working for Paul Hesse at his legendary Sunset Strip photographic studios, Mario Casilli mixed with the biggest names in Hollywood. His ease with high profile subjects and beautiful women would come to define his career.
Dallas star Morgan Fairchild pictured in 1983 wearing a silver headpiece by Casilli
Between 1957 and 1981 Casilli became one of the most prolific photographers for Playboy magazine, shooting no fewer than 57 Playmates, countless other pictorials and several covers.
He even persuaded Barbara Streisand to pose in her underwear.
The lensman was given key card #2 to Playboy's legendary chain of clubs; #1 being reserved for the magazine's boss, Hugh Hefner.
During the 1980s Casilli began shooting the most high profile TV and music stars in America, capturing the excess, the glamour and decadence of the decade through its most flamboyant household names.
Country star Dolly Parton captured in one of her now-iconic outfits in 1987
Hollywood Wives' Mary Crosby with bouffant hair, a liquid gunmetal dress and soft focus, shot in 1985
The biggest shows on TV were to define the decade. Shows making the cover of TV Guide would likely gain 3 or 4 ratings points so portraits of the stars were big business.
Casilli turned them into an art form and his soft focus, high-gloss vision would come to embody the 1980s American dream.
From Moonlighting, Miami Vice, Knight Rider and Baywatch to Fresno and The Golden Girls, the master photographer turned his lens to popular culture and redefined it.
Casilli's style was also a natural fit for rock and pop stars of the 1980 and the greatest musicians in the world queued up to be his subjects, including Lionel Richie, Dolly Parton and the Bee Gees.
Mario passed away in 2001 at the age of 71. Now his work is being published as a collection for the first time by Reel Art Press.
Mario Casilli by Tony Nourmand & Peter Doggett, £29.95, is published by Reel Art Press
Mario Casilli by Tony Nourmand & Peter Doggett, £29.95, is published by Reel Art Press
Joan Collins and Linda Evans of Dynasty working dramatic full make up, lots of jewels and tomato red
Knots Landing's Joan Van Ark in a liquid gold cape and leopard-print bikini, in 1987
Dallas's Larry Hagman in a cowboy hat and suit and Linda Gray in a ruffled, shoulder-padded frock in 1984
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