Published on May 10, 2024Updated on September 02, 2024
Its groundbreaking, powerful and controversial creations shattered the style codes of the 20th century. From the late 1920s to the mid-1950s, Elsa Schiaparelli revolutionised the world of Haute Couture and ready-to-wear fashion with surrealist extravagance and shocking pink. Closed in 1954, the Maison has been reborn in recent years, shining on the world stage in a formidable fusion of elegance, authenticity and creativity.
The awakening of a cavalier spirit
Paul Poiret recognised her potential, motivating her to embark on a career in fashion. Although she specialised in certain aspects of dressmaking, without mastering design or complex techniques, she went on to become one of the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century. Haute Couture, ready-to-wear fashion and sportswear, lingerie, perfumes, jewellery and accessories: for almost thirty years, Elsa Schiaparelli conquered it all. At a time when Parisian trends were pitting her against the sophisticated sobriety of her French contemporary Coco Chanel, Schiaparelli turned fashion into a study in excess. Free, fanciful and whimsical, always inventive, often impertinent. Her strength? Her vision! Avant-garde. Surrealist. Irreverent. A vision nourished by limitless imagination, foreshadowing the modern profession of artistic director.
Once upon a time, there was a sweater...
It all began the day Elsa Schiaparelli fell in love with a sweater worn by one of her friends. The work of an Armenian knitter, she learned. Determined, she managed to find this lady and decided to place an order with her. Thus was born the emblematic piece of the future Maison Schiaparelli: the hand-knitted sweater with its trompe-l’œil motif and a white bow on a black background. A clever illusion, to which a jacket, blouse or tie motif were soon added. This sweater embodied a whole philosophy: make the ordinary extraordinary! In January 1927, Elsa Schiaparelli launched her first collection, Presentation n°1, at her home. The revolution had begun...
Daring to reinvent it all
And Elsa Schiaparelli dared to do everything, or rather forbade nothing! Thanks to her, the zip gained its place in the world of Haute Couture, becoming a decorative element, “like embroidery”, declared Jean-Paul Gaultier. She created the one-piece swimsuit with integrated bra. She was the first to licence her creations. She introduced tweed for the evening and combined the black of a long dress with the white of a wrap jacket. She invented shaped-shoulder suits and created daring culottes and eccentric hats. She was also the first to introduce buttons and original jewellery to Haute Couture. Like the emblematic Aspirin necklace designed in collaboration – her first – with another Elsa, the Franco-Russian author Elsa Triolet: an ingenious composition of porcelain beads that looked like pain-relieving tablets!
Dalí-Schiaparelli, surrealist art gone mad!
A friend of the Dadaists, Elsa Schiaparelli became the figurehead of the Surrealists. She worked with Salvador Dalí, Jean Cocteau, Man Ray and Alberto Giacometti. These surrealists inspired a whole series of accessories, such as the fur bracelet and the Mad Cap, an astonishing knitted hat capable of taking on any shape. But Elsa Schiaparelli’s most wildly creative collaboration was with Salvador Dalí! We owe her sensational printed organza gown to him. A wonderfully subversive creation worn by the American Wallis Simpson, future Duchess of Windsor, on her honeymoon with Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor. But Dalí-Schiaparelli also produced a compact in the shape of a telephone dial, a skeleton dress with protruding bones and the famous shoe hat. Unforgettable extravagances, a confluence of the vision of the fashion designer and the fetishistic obsessions of the Spanish artist.
Pink perfume
S was the name given to Elsa Schiaparelli’s first olfactory creation in 1929. It became the first letter of all the fragrances created by the Maison - with the exception of Zut. Like the legendary Shocking, this fragrance, whose bottle, in the shape of a dressmaker’s bust, followed the curves of Mae West, the Hollywood sex symbol of the time, was created in collaboration with the surrealist artist Léonor Fini. A legendary fragrance with which Elsa Schiaparelli chose to combine the equally famous shocking pink, a dazzling shade of fuchsia that would become the signature colour of the designer and the Maison. This is particularly true of the pink of the hypnotic Phœbus evening cape, a masterpiece from the 1938-1939 Cosmique collection, adorned with scintillating sun-shaped embroidery. It was a masterpiece, and yet another way for Elsa Schiaparelli to break the codes of Haute Couture, which was corseted in its traditions.
Shocking pink, chic pink!
Shocking pink became hot pink in the 1950s, followed by kinky pink in the 1960s. Over time, this intense, bright, luminous pink has established itself as an outrageously girly... and anti-establishment shade. It is the pink of the dress worn in 1953 by Marilyn Monroe in Howard Hawks’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. And, in the same year, the one worn by Zsa Zsa Gabor in John Huston’s Moulin Rouge. Shocking pink became the symbol of London’s punk movements in the 1970s. Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm Mclaren used it to adorn the front of their sultry Sex boutique, which opened in 1971 in the heart of the English capital. And it’s still the pink of the Act Up campaign “Silence=Death”, the famous political slogan in the fight against AIDS.
Schiaparelli, the rebirth
Elsa Schiaparelli closed her fashion house in 1954 and passed away in her sleep in 1973. The brand remained dormant for almost forty years. Jean-Paul Gaultier reclaimed the designer’s legacy in 1995 with his Le Mâle perfume, whose bust-shaped bottle was an equally sexy masculine version of Schiaparelli’s shocking fragrance. John Galliano drew inspiration from the Italian genius with his idea of a newspaper print – an idea that has since been repeated many times – and Yves Saint-Laurent reinterpreted the Phœbus cape in 2000. But it wasn’t until 2012 that the Maison was truly reborn and Schiaparelli officially reopened its doors in Paris, at the famous 21 Place Vendôme. A renaissance that Christian Lacroix saluted the following year by creating a collection entirely devoted to the extravagant Elsa. And in 2014, sixty years on, Schiaparelli once again created a stir at Paris Fashion Week with its first Haute Couture show.
Schiaparelli Roseberry style
An American in Paris at the helm of a French fashion house founded by the extravagant Elsa... This is the crazy story and incredible destiny of Texan Daniel Roseberry, Schiaparelli’s new artistic director since 2019, who, from collection to collection, has skilfully succeeded in infusing his own signature style while respecting the Maison’s DNA. Instead of the nostalgic inspiration of the 1930s, the young designer prefers to anchor his inventiveness in a dialogue with his time... in the same way that Elsa Schiaparelli questioned her own. And that’s precisely where the heritage lies: in this constant desire to make the everyday more spirited, more surprising: with jewellery in the form of a bustier dress, a Nuage dress in silk faille, another in shocking pink silk velvet suspended from earrings, or an incredible reinterpretation of the skeleton dress in silk crepe and crystal embroidery. Incredible materials, spectacular volumes, extraordinary jewellery: Elsa Schiaparelli can rest in peace, Daniel Roseberry has exuberance in spades.
The origins of creative fashion
Blue, red, pink... Colours are in the spotlight this spring in Monaco. And it’s in shocking pink that the Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo is decked out with the Maison Schiaparelli on its patio. This event was the subject of a conference on 16 May 2024, held in the Salle Eiffel at the Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo, the Hôtel des Connaisseurs. It was an opportunity for Delphine Bellini, CEO of Maison Schiaparelli, and Francesco Pastore, Head of Heritage and Cultural Projects, to take a look back at the history and secrets of the legendary label and the extraordinary career of its founder.
From the red carpet to the White House
Today, as in the past, Schiaparelli creations continue to light up the catwalks and dress top celebrities. Move over Lauren Bacall, Marlène Dietrich and Arletty. Here come Beyoncé, Michelle Obama and Emilia Clark. Model Bella Hadid on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021 in a sculpted black gown set with a necklace in the shape of golden lungs, and actress Emily Blunt in a rhinestone gown at the 2024 Oscars ceremony. Or Lady Gaga, who performed the Star-Spangled Banner in the nave of the Capitol in Washington in 2021 to mark the inauguration of President Joe Biden. The world-famous star appeared in a slim-fitting (and bulletproof!) jacket in midnight blue cashmere, embellished on the chest with a gilded pewter dove brooch, and a magnificent long skirt in red silk faille. An exceptional ensemble for the most solemn of moments. In a similar display of grandeur and stylistic innovation, Jennifer Lopez captured the attention of everyone in attendance at the 2024 MET Gala. Dressed in a dazzling Schiaparelli Haute Couture creation, designed by Daniel Roseberry, her outfit blended audacity and elegance, perfectly embodying the Maison’s artistic spirit. The revolution continues...
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