Elsa Schiaparelli Haute Couture Faux Bolero Gown

About the Item

Elsa Schiaparelli was well connected into the avant-garde artistic and intellectual circles of New York and Paris in the 1920s and 30s. She regarded fashion as art and thought of herself as an artist. She was the first and arguably the most influential designer to explore irony in dress, collaborating frequently with fellow Surrealists Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dali, and Man Ray. One is reminded of the famed Dali-Schiaparelli organdy Lobster dress, the crustacean's ironic placement forming a visual pun as worn by an unsuspecting Wallis Simpson in the images prepared for her wedding to the Duke of Windsor. Schiaparelli's designs of the late 1930s adhere to fellow Surrealist Andre Breton's idea of convulsive beauty, a beauty which was meant to shock. “Convulsive beauty will be veiled-erotic, fixed-explosive, magic-circumstantial, or it will not be. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Schiaparelli's Haute Couture lavishly embroidered Surrealist trompe l'oiel gown in silk velvet and crepe. 1940. One of Schiaparelli's favorite design motifs included using trompe l'oeil elements into her pieces. She used elements that fooled the eye, inspired by her interest in Surrealist art. An example of this is visible in the construction of the dress, particularly the seaming, which creates a trompe l'oeil bolero. The faux silk velvet bolero is defined by the 18th Century style Lesage embroideries of gilt metal and seed pearl flowerheads placed across the breasts and edges. The results are highly decorative, demure, subversive and provocative at the same time. The placement of the flowers creating a metaphor in this surrealist pun. The body of the dress is fitted and releases to fullness from the hip to hem in a rich black crepe. SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY. Schiaparelli in her studio, late 1930's. Schiaparelli gown with gilt metal and pearl day lilies, Fall,1940. Schiaparelli's Shoe Hats, Lip Suit and Surrealist Orchid Sculpture.

Designer:
Elsa Schiaparelli
Dimensions:
Marked Size: 8 (NA)
Place of Origin:
France
Period:
1940-1949
Material Notes:
Silk velvet, crepe, metal, glass, faux pearl
Condition:
Excellent, label is partially visible.
Seller Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: AU12042626468

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Elsa Schiaparelli

From her signature color Shocking Pink to her collaborations with Surrealist artists, the boldly original Elsa Schiaparelli transformed fashion with her haute couture house from the late 1920s to the early ’50s. Experimenting with elements like trompe l’oeil images and colorful visible zippers, the Italian designer instilled a provocative avant-garde artistry in her clothing and accessories, including those created with Salvador Dalí, such as the lobster dress and a hat shaped like a shoe.

Born in Rome, Schiaparelli was a rebellious child who grew up among the city’s intellectual elite. She had a voracious appetite for reading and became interested in ancient cultures, astronomy and world religions. Schiaparelli studied philosophy at the University of Rome, and after publishing a collection of poems on love and sensuality that so mortified her conservative parents that they tried, unsuccessfully, to confine her to a Swiss convent, she left for London.

A quick marriage to Count Wilhelm de Wendt de Kerlor brought her to New York, but it would be in Paris following her divorce that Schiaparelli embraced her artistic passions. She moved to the French capital city in 1922 with her young daughter and happened to meet master couturier Paul Poiret, who loaned the stylish Schiaparelli his clothes, sparking her own fashion interests.

Schiaparelli opened her modest atelier in Paris and debuted her first collection of knitwear in 1927, and later that year, she designed a black-and-white pullover hand-knit wool sweater featuring a trompe l’oeil bowknot that captured the attention of the fashion world. Vogue called it “an artistic masterpiece.” The success led to her moving her house to 21 Place Vendôme in 1935 where thousands of garments were produced each year.

Schiaparelli’s knitwear collections were later accompanied by revolutionary swimsuits and other clothing and accessories. Her inventive designs would include culottes — a radical statement in the 1930s when women still could cause a scandal by wearing pants — as well as printed fabric, such as the 1938 Tears dress with a print designed by Dalí making it appear as if the evening gown had been savagely ripped.

Schiaparelli was among the first designers to use materials like rayon and Lurex as well as explore wrap dresses and transparent raincoats. She also introduced unisex fragrances and brought her artistic partnerships into jewelry, such as bronze brooches made with Alberto Giacometti and fur-lined bracelets with Méret Oppenheim. As she wrote in her 1954 autobiography Shocking Life, women should “dare to be different.”

Despite her acclaim, her shop closed in 1954 after a tumultuous time during World War II. By then, fashion had moved on with Christian Dior's New Look, and the closure of Schiaparelli's business coincided with a comeback mounted by Coco Chanel, her archrival in the early days.

In 2006, Italian businessman Diego Della Valle acquired the brand and its archives, and the Maison Schiaparelli was reopened in 2012, back at 21 Place Vendôme where Schiaparelli's fearless and enduring work began.

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