1930s Fashion

A pretty vintage blue silk slip with detail on the front , neckline and hem.

1930S Blush Pink Rayon & Silk Chiffon Lace Sheer Cowl Neck Dress With Cross Back

In as-is condition. was washed and has color bleeding and rust on the buttons. Silk & zipper are in otherwise pretty good condition. 1930S Cream & Brown Silk Chiffon Abstracted Polk...

1930S Hand Painted Silk Blue Metallic Crane Floral Cherry Blossom Kimono

1930S Black & Nude Silk Chiffon Lace Gown With Attached Cape

1930S Black Rayon & Silk Velvet Top With Copper Beading

1930S Organic Cotton Chambray Sailor Day Dress

An intricately carved Bakelite frame from the 1930s, with stylised flower and branch motifs, is attached to a black silk velvet clutch , which is piped in black silk, to create this ...

A chic 1930s black lace gown. The dress has a round neck at the front, with lace panels and a lace skirt. It has ribbon edging around the hem.

Art Deco Bakelite Shelf, perfect for your display of bakelite barware and objects! Glass shelves with caramel Bakelite clad metal rod supports. 193...

An exquisite vivid emerald green handmade shawl with long fringe trim. Feels like silk. Handmade Triangle shape. Measurements. Width: 60" inches excluding fringe. Fring...

"In difficult times, fashion is always outrageous" Elsa Schiaparelli,1930's. "Life has changed so much, A Schiaparelli was never made for the streets." Karl Lagerfeld, 1970's. 2 quotes,2 designers, 4 decades apart. 4 decades later. Although these quotes are highly debatable, especially in the context of today's high-low designer collabs and pop up retailing, iconic fashion endures. Whether now relegated to a museum exhibition, a collector's acid free box or a celebrity one nighter, these fashion artifacts from the french Haute Couture of the 1930's echo a time, pace and culture unrecognizable to most people today. Schiaparelli changed the definition of what it meant to be a designer at an important time in the evolution of the Haute Couture. Rather than simply making beautifully elegant garments (which she also did), she focused on the concepts behind the pieces. For her fashion was a fluid medium and she effortlessly blended fashion, politics and the fine arts. She was one of the most innovative and rebellious designers of the period working against what she considered the stale fashion currents of the day. She was elegant yet untrained. As a protege of Poiret, she gained entry into the world of Parisian fashion. While her rival Chanel was essentially uneducated and a “primitive” in the artistic circles in which she socialized, Schiaparelli’s impeccable social credentials as the daughter of an old and distinguished Roman family gave her a relatively easy entree into Paris society. She was a subversive, a punk, a desecrator, a collaborator, an innovator as well as the ultimate insider whose plans on design domination and creating "la zone rose" for the modern world were cut short by the advent of WWII. She was at the height of her influence and power showing 4 iconic collections in the last years of the decade. Fascinating to consider what the House of Schiaparelli could have brought forth in the following decades had the world not been swept away in turmoil at that moment. In the context of her short prewar career, few remaining masterworks have survived. The rare "moment" she created in the 30's lives on within each art piece, safelocked away within each stitch and sequin. Each design retains her spirit and legacy as a free thinking, modernist rebel who used the avantegarde as her platform in the most creative period of fashion design in the 20th Century. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rare and Important Elsa Schiaparelli Haute Couture...