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Shocking, an exhibition to rediscover the work of Elsa Schiaparelli

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8 min

Shocking, an exhibition to rediscover the work of Elsa Schiaparelli

Curator at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, Marie-Sophie Carron de la Carrière signs the curatorship of an Elsa Schiaparelli retrospective which runs from July 6, 2022 to January 22, 2023.

Twenty years after a first retrospective, the Musée des Arts décoratifs, which holds in its collections a unique series of more than six thousand drawings by the Maison Schiaparelli as well as a set of clothes and accessories, allows us to (re)discover the work of this big name in fashion to the new generation. " Shocking! The surreal worlds of Elsa Schiaparelli is also the first exhibition to highlight, through paintings and photographs, the links that united the seamstress to the artistic avant-garde of the time.

“An Elsa Schiaparelli garment is the equivalent of a masterpiece”

This retrospective brings together 520 works including 272 costumes and fashion accessories. What is the complexity of bringing together so many pieces in an exhibition?

A garment by Elsa Schiaparelli is the equivalent of a masterpiece. It is an old, very fragile piece of sewing, which cannot be exhibited in a display case for more than a certain time. Following this exhibition, which lasts seven months, the costumes you are about to see cannot be exhibited for seven years. We are lucky that the clothes in the collection of the Union française des arts du costume (UFAC) come from Elsa Schiaparelli's own wardrobe and that their state of preservation is remarkable.

The exhibition is called “Schocking! The surreal worlds of Elsa Schiaparelli”. What is shocking about the one we nicknamed "Schiap"?

In 1937, she baptized " Shocking » one of its perfumes. This will then be the title of his memoirs Shocking Life, which she published in 1954. It is therefore a word which belongs to her. An English word: remember that she lived in New York. It is also a word that sounds. We therefore understand to what extent Elsa Schiaparelli had a sense of communication. She knew the meaning and the music of the words. He also evokes her condition as a free woman: Elsa Schiaparelli arrived in Paris in 1922, alone with her daughter. She is an emancipated woman, her husband left her and she has to support her family. By digging into the subject, I discovered that the use of fuchsia pink by the milliner is also “shocking”. In particular because, for the surrealists including Dali, it is the color of the female sex. Elsa Schiaparelli writes it in her memoirs. This rose is the symbol of dark, deep, sometimes dangerous zones which are limit points in which the imagination can rush. But it can also be a sparkling and slamming exhibition title.

We talk a lot about his influence on the couturiers of yesterday and today. What is his legacy?

She grew up in a very cultured Italian aristocratic environment. She was born in Rome and lived in Palazzo Corsini. His father was director of the library of this palace. From her earliest childhood, she had access to illuminations from the Middle Ages. Very colorful works that depict everything related to symbolic discourse, mythology, religious stories. Basically, Elsa Schiaparelli's fashion is in the image of these illuminations: erudite and at the same time very accessible, with a naive aspect, but with a demanding or profound content to which only the initiated have access. The ambition of this exhibition: to make all the contents of the clothes, decorations, embroideries and images accessible by providing the keys to interpretation.

'It's an unconventional, even shocking beauty'

Isn't the quest for beauty, for aesthetics, the big business of her life?

Yes, but it's a beauty that can be disturbing. Elsa Schiaparelli did not consider herself beautiful. When she met Man Ray in New York in the early 20s, he asked her to come to his studio to photograph her. You have to imagine her as a small woman who does not have a dream figure. Man Ray sees her original physique, he also understands that she captures the light. She therefore becomes a recurring figure in his photography. But it is an unconventional, even shocking beauty. It is a beauty that continues to be alive and attractive in the age of diversity of physical types.

What is the artistic context when "Schiap" arrives in Paris in the 20s?

In Paris, fashion is boyish. In the exhibition, we see the portrait of Madame Agnès, with very short hair. It is the embodiment of the modern woman with crazy elegance. Madame Agnès is a milliner, but also an artist. Like Elsa Schiaparelli, she does fashion because fashion allows her to earn a living. In 1925, the great International Exhibition of Decorative and Industrial Arts was held. The photograph (exhibited in the second room, editor's note) taken by Man Ray of Elsa Schiaparelli in a pleated dress, painted in trompe-l'oeil by Jean Dunand, perfectly illustrates this period of effervescence. The great lacquerer Jean Dunand then embodies this creative movement of the time which mixes the decorative arts and fashion. Elsa Schiaparelli's curiosity allows her to be open to all experiences. What excites and interests him are other artistic fields and also the folklore of distant countries. Artists like Cocteau and Dali inspire her and give birth to ideas that they immediately incorporate into her clothing designs.

“A room is dedicated to the tandem that Elsa Schiaparelli formed with Dali”

Conversely, what momentum does it inspire when coming from New York?

She arrives with all her contacts, that of Man Ray of course, but also Marcel Duchamp whom she met in the United States, but also Gabrièle Picabia, wife of the Dadaist artist Francis Picabia. She arrives with a very American vision of fashion. New York at the time represents modernity. It was by American Vogue that Chanel's little black dress was immediately recognized in 1926. The same success across the Atlantic the following year, when Elsa Schiaparelli launched her first creations and her sweaters with trompe-l' eye.

How does the exhibition highlight the deep fascination that the designer had for art and artists?

A room is dedicated to the tandem that Elsa Schiaparelli formed with Dali. At the time, he embodied surrealism, but he was not yet the immense artist we know today. She and he share the same imagination carried by the exploration of dreams and the unconscious. They have in common this taste for play and transgression that we find in the 1937 clothing collection that she created with him. From this collection, the “lobster dress” that can be seen worn by Wallis Simpson before she married the Duke of Westminster. A virginal dress, obviously very sexual. In this room, Elsa Schiaparelli also appears in a photograph from the 50s with Dali. It is always this game of diversion of patterns and materials that takes place.

“Fashion, to address the greatest world, must dress world celebrities”

If it was necessary to retain, in this retrospective, only one costume, which one to choose?

It would be this evening jacket dated spring 1940. The jacket is designed by Elsa Schiaparelli and presented in 1939. We are one month away from the declaration of war. There's all this historical context that goes into why these beautiful embroidered bellows pockets matter. The collection in which this costume fits is called "Cash & Carry". It is an incredibly elegant jacket with an embroidered collar in the shape of a necklace and golden buttons braided like trimmings. It allows women who need to take shelter to fill their pockets with necessities while remaining chic.

The last room of the exhibition is devoted to the Maison Schiaparelli, today directed by the new artistic director, the American Daniel Roseberry. What was he able to transcribe from the spirit of Elsa Schiaparelli?

The surrealist inspiration of Elsa Schiaparelli. For example with this silhouette that we find in the exhibition worn by Bella Hadid during the Cannes Film Festival 2021. Dressed in a black sheath dress revealing bust and chest, the American model wears a jewel evoking a plant structure whose ramifications which evoke lungs. Elsa Schiaparelli dressed famous women like Marlène Dietrich, one of whose suits can be seen in the exhibition, or even Mae West, whose film sequences can be seen. Today fashion, to exist and address the greatest world, must dress world celebrities. Daniel Rosebery understood this and created clothes and accessories that correspond to them, which strike the spirits through an effective message accessible to all. The perfect example is Lady Gaga's outfit, which appears in a dress adorned with a dove of peace, during the inauguration of Joe Biden.

Photo: View of the “Shocking! The surreal worlds of Elsa Schiaparelli » © Les Arts Décoratifs / Christophe Dellière

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