Lara Alhasannieh | Staff Writer
The designs of Schiaparelli, an Italian fashion brand, stole everyone’s attention again this year when two of the world’s most well-known celebrities showed up to her couture show wearing her fashion designs. Kylie Jenner dazzled in a long black dress with a realistic lion head on the front, while Doja Cat chose a more alien-like look. Covered in 30,000 red Swarovski crystals and wearing a red silk bustier with red wooden beads joined together to form a skirt, the rapper turned more than a few heads at the show. Both these looks generated a lot of buzz and debates, from the lion head promoting animal abuse, to Doja Cat’s bizarre missing lashes. However, one cannot help but admire the artistry that goes into making Schiaperlli’s vision come to life.
‘The Surreal World of Elsa Schiaparelli’ is not just a runway show, it is art in its most surreal form. The late designer opened her first atelier in Paris in 1972[1]. Although conservative at first, her collaboration with the American visual artist Man Ray greatly inspired her designs. According to Forbes, Schiaparelli was celebrated in her own time as one of the most artistic figures in the fashion industry and is now the subject of a major exhibition at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, where she brings surrealism from canvas to life.
Moreover, she was constantly encouraged to be more daring through her creative relationships with the surrealist painters Salvador Dalí, Jean Cocteau, Leonor Fini, and many others. Elsa Schiaparelli was always surrounded by the best talents of all sorts, from advertisers to perfume bottle designers. Over the course of her time, Schiaparelli’s bold and eccentric designs quickly gained attention for being tailored to women with strong, independent personalities [2].
Some of Schiaparelli’s most innovative work resulted from her partnership with one of the most famous surrealist artists in history, Salvador Dalí. Dalí and Schiaparelli’s partnership birthed many designs and silhouettes that were striking and memorable due to their shock value. For example, the Skeleton Dress (1938) is based on a drawing Dalí made of a woman in a sheer, clingy dress that reveals her rib cage and hip bones. To construct the dress, Schiaparelli used black rayon, sewing tucks of fabric to resemble ribs. The silhouette created was one-of-a-kind, and continued to inspire later designers, including Alexander McQueen [3].
Currently, under the management of Daniel Roseberry, Schiaparelli continues to inspire designers and fashion enthusiasts to this day. January 2023’s exhibition was inspired by Dante’s Inferno, with the animals being four of the literal references, as Roseberry explained to Vogue Magazine [4]. By taking inspiration from the terrors of hell, she hoped to blaze the trail for future creative success.
Surrealism as an artistic approach works with the unfamiliar and uncanny, in search of beauty outside the norms, a revolutionary step that aims to change the human experience and reveal the fundamentals of the unconscious mind. Somehow, experiencing the rebirth of that artistic movement on the runway reaffirms its original goal. The unconscious comes to life and gives beauty a new meaning. Schiaparelli the brand, continues to honor the original designer’s wishes. As Schiaparelli, herself once said, “Never fit the dress to the body, but train the body to fit the dress.” She spoke not only about the importance of authenticity in fashion, but she also recognized that the wearer contributes as much, if not more, to fashion as the designer [5].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsa_Schiaparelli
[2] https://www.schiaparelli.com/en/21-place-vendome/the-life-of-elsa/#3
[3]https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-fashion-designer-made-dalis-art-wearable
[4]https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2023-couture/schiaparelli