The “Skeleton dress”, yes that black simple and classic dress that allows you to see through the skin and notice the bones structure of the body in a subtle but very direct way is exactly what Elsa Schiaparelli is for me.
A strong and decided women, not scared to be herself and to express it through fashion, giving you the opportunity to see the world through her eyes that only saw art, rebellion and enjoyment, but choosing exactly what she wants you to know about her, allowing to get just a hint of who she was but enough to make you understand and love her creative world, truthful with the eccentric and intriguing aesthetic of the iconic “Skeleton Dress”.
Elsa Schiaparelli was always faithful to herself, her ideas and beliefs, this is what made her unique in a society full of rules and standards to be fulfilled, even more in the time where she was born and when her ideas flourished being this one of the main reasons to admire her.
Exactly how she said “Ninety per cent [of women] are afraid of being conspicuous, and of what people will say. So, they buy a gray suit. They should dare to be different.” (Schiaparelli, 1954)
Shocking you, like her “shocking pink” direct and defying the rules for women of the time who were supposed to be submissive and to keep up with the standards.
Elsa Schiaparelli was everything but this, she approached fashion in a progressive, artistic and futuristic way, which is why her ideas of freedom and strength still apply in our world today.
Nevertheless, she managed to turn the predictable fashion into an unpredictable one, making statements through garments and giving the surprise factor that allowed women to enjoy what they chose to wear and have fun in the process, not to take it very seriously but to take it as a personal tool to express yourself and let the world know exactly what you want them to see from you.
Unifying art, theater, dramatism with the garments and design was one of her most important accomplishments, being able to erase the boundaries between fashion and art. Demonstrating how these two worlds could collide and create original and ingenious designs that were much needed in a world full of rules, one of her main beliefs was that precisely rules where there to be broken and so she did.
Looking to generate emotional connections and reactions through fashion, she highly saw herself and her idea of beauty represented by the surrealistic movement and its conception of “Convulsive Beauty”, pushing garments to the next level where they not only serve as clothes but as art pieces that could create physical emotions and responses from people.
Pictures taken form V&A Museum
One of her major moves, and if you ask me the most powerful one, was the fact that she saw other artist as a font of inspiration and support, being able to create the most interesting collaborations that finally translated into iconic fashion artistic garments, this concept of partnership Elsa Schiaparelli proposed is still impacting today’s fashion world were collaborative work between fashion designers, brands and artists from different backgrounds are being held bringing new ideas to the table.
Elsa Schiaparelli’s worked with a lot of surrealistic artists of the time to create fashion proposals that could inject some revolution to the fashion guidelines of the moment. Her most iconic designs came out of the friendship she shared with Salvador Dali, he was one of the most important artists of the surrealistic movement and his idea of deliberately confusing the eye and what you were seeing through his art came together and created fashion pieces that spoke for themselves and delivered powerful and intriguing messages to the world.
One of those we already talked about was the “Skeleton Dress” in 1938, it gave you the idea of an “x-ray” vision with which you could see through the skin just as I said allowing you to recognise what they intentionally wanted you to see which favoured them and gave the power to the dress, inspired by a drawing Dali gifted Elsa that showed a woman with the idea of the bones coming outside, making with this the perfect translation of art into clothes. They also came up with interesting hats, just as the “Shoe Hat” which Schiaparelli created from a picture Gala, Dali’s wife, took of him with a slipper on top of his head with this design Elsa was able to show how fashion could be a fun and not a so serious alternative to express yourself.
Another interesting collaboration they did was the “Lobster Dress”. One of the most important pieces that came out of their work together was this in 1937, it used the lobster as the main feature which was an animal that was used in a lot a of Salvador Dali’s pieces, it intentionally had a sexual connotation to it because of it aphrodisiac characteristics making it a frontal mockery of the puritan society of the time and emphasising again how Elsa Schiaparelli designs and art was there for everything but to please the society.
The Lobster Dress & The Inspiration
The collaborations between Schiaparelli and the artists gave the world new proposals to start working with like the “Bracelet in metal and fur” she presented in her winter collection for the year 1936 in collaboration with Mere Oppenheim, this was also a revolutionary work as it was the first time two women artists worked together and that was successful as it also resulted in a commercial license in the United States for metal mesh bags. Another amazing collaboration came in 1938 with Christian Bérard, who was a painter and illustrator, he designed 3 styles for Schiaparelli´s winter collection inspired by the sun and the painting of Raphael “The Three Graces”.
Talking about her collections it is very important to state another big revolution she brought to the fashion industry, and it was the way fashion shows were done. As Elsa Schiaparelli was the first designer to encapsule her collections with a theme that related all the pieces included in the collection, which allowed her to create theatrical and more dramatical shows, that resemble to the ones we know today.
Those were fashion shows that not only showed the clothes but also acted as entertainment with music and lightning involved, like in her “Le Cirque” collection of 1938 that included circus performers in the show.
The Circus Collection Magazine Report
Another big theme collection she presented was “The Zodiac” in 1938, it included motifs related to the constellations and also some a jacket and a dress that incorporated pieces of mirrors, showing again her ability to use fashion as a powerful message sender, she pretended with the use of the mirrors to return the male scrutiny back to themselves with the reflection, reinforcing her main goal to create clothes that went against the guidelines of the society and fashion of the time.
There is a big component to everything she did that is not always very high mentioned, it is that even though her approach to fashion was always artistical and different to what was being presented in the time, she managed to be commercially successful.
She was the first female designer to be featured on the cover of The Time´s magazine, which gave her a very high profile and allowed her to keep on with her futuristic and artistic designs, but also gave her more credibility for the artistical movements to accept her.
The Zodiac Collection
For the year 1932 Schiaparelli counted with 400 employees, but in just 2 years in 1934 she had 700 employees, five floors atelier and a boutique with a view to the “Vendôme” Square in Paris, additionally she counted with an office in New York.
Thanks to her ability to create new and different proposals, she managed to stablish licensing agreements with North American manufacturers and even allowed them to use her as image to promote it, like for example the deal she closed related to the zippers as she was the first designer to use zippers in a visible way and even in couture.
As the pioneer she was, the first line of designer sunglasses was proposed by her. She had way too many ideas and creativity that perhaps was hard for the society of the time to keep up with her and her vision of her brand and the world.
To say she was a visionary is a short word to express everything Elsa Schiaparelli did for fashion, she pushed all the boundaries and guidelines that fashion had and created her own path and ways of communicating through fashion and art. Even though this magical formula worked for her for a lot of years, as she was growing her brand the world kept going and the inevitable, for the time, happened and the Second World War came to the scene, she tried to keep the business running but it was a different scenario the one everyone was facing, Elsa Schiaparelli decided to move from Paris.
The Time Magazine Cover
When the world ended, she returned to her atelier and pretended to pick things up from where she left them, but one of her biggest traits played as her biggest enemy in this moment.
She stayed truth to herself but did no considered the pivotal and delicate moment the society was going through and as she always thought women should be strong and go against the rules of society just as she did, it was hard for her designs to be accepted after the war.
Women wanted to go back to be feminine, also the artistical and dramatical component of her fashion was already part of the past, so Elsa Schiaparelli´s designs just did not adjust to that precise moment and need of the society.
Her biggest weakness to be able to adapt herself to the society and not the other way around, in this precise moment was what brought her brand to bankruptcy and to the end of the Schiaparelli´s reign.
Above all Elsa Schiaparelli was more than just a fashion designer but an artistic couturier and businesswoman, proving that women are up to bigger challenges and that could succeed on every level of society and on every challenge, they are and were faced to.
This was always translated into the woman she portrayed in her designs, which was a woman with a strong, independent, and well-defined personality. Schiaparelli´s women are and were just like her, secure of what they want in life, self-sufficient, a woman that is not afraid of taking risks and going against the standards and guidelines society puts on them.
This could also be reflected on the woman who chose to wear all her designs, to begin she obviously thought she was the best model for her designs so you could always see her wearing them. But she was backed but imponent and influential women of the time, such as The Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson who used “The lobster” dress during her honeymoon. Gala Dali, whom of course was Salvador Dali´s wife but that not only wore her designs she also participated a little taking the picture that inspired the “shoe hat”.
Marlene Dietrich, German American actress who stood up against the Nazis during the World War II. And the list could go on, but it is just for us to really understand and embrace the kind of women Schiaparelli portrayed, an unapologetic, fierce, self-confident one.
So, what is there not to admire about Elsa Schiaparelli, her ability to just be unapologetically truth to her ideas and fulfilled her dreams, not letting anything stop her and not even her family or the society rules, we are all even facing today. She is more than just a designer, she is a visionary that brought revolution to the fashion world and whose ideas continue to be implemented and influencing designer, brands and women involved in the fashion industry.
Just pure, vibrant and intense as her shocking pink, that is who Elsa Schiaparelli is.
