Monday June 8 was a partial rain day and quite cool. Only about 16C. Our destination for the day was the Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art exhibition at the V & A Museum.
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| Poster for the Exhibit |
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| Opening screen |
Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973) redefined fashionable taste and perceptions of beauty in the 20th century. She was born in Rome to a family of academics and aristocrats. She left Italy at 23 to live a life that was anything but conventional. She moved to London in 1913, married and then in 1916, in the middle of WWI, Elsa and her husband moved to New York where she spent some time with Man Ray and other artists. In 1920, her daughter, Gogo, was born and following the breakdown of her marriage, in 1922, she moved with Gogo to Paris.
With no formal training, she launched her first fashion collection in 1927 of hand-knitted sweaters with geometric patterns and trompe l'oeil bow-knots, the latter were a huge success. Her creations soon made her a designer of choice. Within five years, Maison Schiaparelli employed 400 staff who created over 7000 couture garments each year!! She became a French citizen in 1931 and was the first female fashion designer to be featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1934.
In 1935, Schiaparelli moved her Paris couture salon to Place Vendôme. In 1937, she launched one of her most successful perfumes, Shocking. In 1939, she closed her London premises, which she had opened in 1933. In 1940, following the German occupation of Paris, she left France for a 30 city lecture tour across the U.S., titled 'Clothes Make the Woman.' Except for a brief return to Paris, Schiaparelli spent the war years in New York. In 1942, she organized the First Papers of Surrealism exhibition in New York with André Breton and Marcel Duchamp. Her Paris salon was seized and placed under German administration.
When the war ended in Europe, Elsa returned to Paris and presented her first post-war collection. From 1951-53, Schiaparelli entered into licensing agreements with a range of American manufacturers to develop lingerie, menswear, eyewear and other products. In 1954, she closed her couture salon, though her perfume business continued. She died in 1973.
In 2006, the Schiaparelli name and archive was acquired and the House was revived. In 2012, the Schiaparelli salon reopened at 21 Place Vendôme. Daniel Roseberry took the helm in 2019 and continued the House's reputation as a fashion disrupter. A number of his recent creations were on display. In 2024, Daniel Roseberry was honoured with International Designer of the Year Award by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Maison Schiaparelli will celebrate its centenary in 2027.
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| Photo of Schiaparelli |
There were a few iconic pieces at the beginning of the exhibit.
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| Bare Bones, A collaboration with Salvador Dalí, Summer 1938, Circus collection. The padded construction exemplifies Schiaparelli's predilection for employing unusual techniques to create designs that shocked. |
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| Deep breath- Schiaparelli by Daniel Roseberry, Autumn/Winter 2021. |
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Schiaparelli's window displays by a long-standing American staff member, became a visitor attraction at Place Vendôme. The theatrical scenes often featured two articulated wooden figures,
known as Pascal and Pascaline. |
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| Sweaters from her first 1927 collection- the sweaters sold very well-- very modern look. Schiaparelli said: 'I wore it at a smart lunch and created a furore-soon the restaurant of the Paris Ritz was filled with women from all over the world in black and white sweaters.' |
Schiaparelli also created textiles. In 1936, she made a line of novelty prints for the American market. One of the designs included famous Parisian landmarks to celebrate the upcoming 1937 Exposition Internationale in Paris.
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| Breaking news, 1935- Schiaparelli made fashion headlines with this textile. She capitalized on the press attention her garments and personal life received, designing a print with news cuttings about herself. The pattern was part of her Stop, Look and Listen collection. |
Schiaparelli continued designing seasonal collections for a short time after the start of WWII. Her Spring 1940 season was described as 'a very small war collection essentially created for Parisians.' She offered suits with large cash and carry pockets to replace the need for a handbag.
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| 'Cash and carry' suits |
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| The fur coat was worn by Pamela Carme, a British socialite turned star of the stage. The three pieces in the front of the photo were from Spring 1939, A Modern Comedy collection. The buttons were shaped like comedy and tragedy masks. |
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| Summer, 1932. Schiaparelli was a daring colourist. This dress had a beetroot tone with a salmon pink trim. The puckered texture was a Schiaparelli favourite. |
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| The dress on the right, Summer 1936, Parachute collection, was inspired by a childhood memory of jumping from a window using an umbrella to slow her descent. The dress on the left was from her Autumn 1938, Pagan collection. It alluded to the ancient world and is fashioned like a doric column. |
Soon after Schiaparelli showed her Modern Comedy collection, her long-time friend Man Ray painted this work which he considered the culmination of his surrealist career. It features a mannequin with a colourful diamond pattern similar to a Schiaparelli coat (see below). Despite its upbeat title, the damaged wall and fighting creatures anticipate the coming war.
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| Man Ray, Fair Weather, 1939. |
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Spring 1939, A Modern Comedy. From 1935, Schiaparelli designed around recognizable themes. A central motif of her Spring 1939 collection, A Modern Comedy,
was the diamond pattern of the Harlequin costume. |
There was a section with a number of evening gowns created by Daniel Roseberry. He took his inspiration from the Schiaparelli archives.
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| Mille-feuille. From Schiaparelli by Daniel Roseberry Autumn/Winter 2024 Phoenix collection. Inspiration, in part, the hourglass silhouettes of the 1950's. |
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| Spring 1939, A Modern Comedy collection (left) and Winter 1935, Crowns or Republics collection |
There was a section of photographs by leading photographers who created adventurous fashion images, visually matching the artistic language of Schiaparelli's garments.
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| Collarless jacket and hat with butterfly trimmings, British Vogue, 15 March 1937, Horst P Horst. |
There was a video based on photographs of a number of important women from the 1930s who wore Schiaparelli.
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| Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979) in Schiaparelli |
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| Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor (1896-1986)-- in the lobster dress on the right |
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| Josephine Baker (1906-75), Dancer, singer, actor in Schiaparelli |
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Summer 1937, 'a song of birds, bees and butterflies woven on summer prints.'
The butterfly was a surrealist symbol of metamorphosis. |
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| Evening coat: In response to the looming threat of war, Schiaparelli's Summer 1939 collection captured a retrograde mood. Screen: Elsa favoured screens painted by her artist friends as part of her interior décor. This 1939 screen by Marcel Vertès, references the Italian theatrical tradition and its influence on ballet. It shows Harlequin, serenading Colombine. Vertès painted these Commedia dell'arte characters around the same time as Schiaparelli launched her Modern Comedy collection. |
There was a room full Schiaparelli jackets which combined lavish embroidery, sumptuous textiles and unusual fastenings. She entrusted her embroidery to Maison Lesage.
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| A modern twist by Daniel Roseberry, Autumn/Winter 2021. Lots of fractured anatomical elements appear, motifs seen in both surrealist and cubist canvasses and in Schiaparelli garments. |
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| Schiaparelli |
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| Schiaparelli, 1937 |
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| Summer 1941, carrots, cauliflowers and radishes offered a witty observation of the changing role of women during the war. This jacket was from the last collection Elsa designed before leaving Paris for the U.S. in May 1941. |
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| Display of Schiaparelli hats-- made from many different materials with lots of flourishes. |
Schiaparelli's gloves often exploited their uncanny similarity to disembodied human hands. She made her first gloves with faux fingernails in 1928. After Man Ray photographed hands painted to resemble gloves by Pablo Picasso, Schiaparelli revisited the idea for her Winter 1936 collection.
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| Man Ray, 1935, Hands painted by Pablo Picasso |
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Pablo Picasso's Portrait of Nusch Éluard in Schiaparelli, 1937. When Nusch arrived at Picasso's studio wearing a Schiaparelli hat with a horseshoe motif, Picasso immediately painted her portrait.
He was fascinated by the hat's angular form. |
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Stockings, gloves, boots from different Schiaparelli collections.
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| Shoe Hat, designed by Schiaparelli with Salvador Dalí, 1937-38. Gala Dalí wearing the Shoe hat, with Salvador Dali's sculpture titled Retrospective Bust of a Woman, 1938. Photo by André Gaillet. |
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| There was a section of photos of Schiaparelli. This one was by Man Ray, 1931-33. |
Lobsters were a prevailing motif for Salvador Dalí, who considered them sexually charged.
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| Lobster print textile, Schiaparelli with Salvador Dali, silk printing by Paul Sacha, Spring 1937 |
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| Lobster dinner dress, Schiaparelli with Salvador Dalí, Summer 1937. Wallis Simpson gained international fame in 1936 when King Edward VII abdicated the British throne to marry her. A Schiaparelli client, in 1937, she ordered an avant-garde wedding trousseau which included a version of the Lobster Dress. |
Schiaparelli launched her Spring 1937 collection to mark the Exposition Internationale in Paris, where she exhibited alongside other artists and designers. An image by Jean Cocteau blended classical motifs and surrealist techniques in his drawings of mirrored, kissing faces which, in profile, trace an urn of roses. The image was embroidered onto the reverse of the coat (below).
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| Evening coat, Schiaparelli with Jean Cocteau, Spring 1937 |
There was a small room with a number of her perfumes in beautifully designed bottles.
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Schiaparelli commissioned her friend, artist Leonor Fini, to design the bottle of her most famous perfume Shocking. Its shape was modelled on the dress form of actress Mae West.
Window display bottle, Leonor Fini for Elsa Schiaparelli, 1937 |
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| Gala and Salvador Dalí, Gala wears a Schiaparelli London dress with a glitering bodice. The photograph was taken on the occasion of Salvador Dalí's first UK solo exhibition. Photo by Cecil Beaton 1936. |
The final rooms contained pieces designed by Daniel Roseberry, mixed in with some Schiaparelli outfits.
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Custom couture gown worn by Ariana Grande at the 2025 Oscars.
Schiaparelli by Daniel Roseberrry, 2025. |
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For his Icarus collection, Roseberry created sculptural silhouettes.
Scalloped corset dress, Spring/Summer 2025 |
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| Schiaparelli demonstrated a fearless use of colour. This 1938 ensemble made in her London salon, contrasts both colour and texture with its emerald feather cape and shimmering brown gown. |
The last room contained photos of celebrities wearing Schiaparelli by Daniel Roseberry.
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| Steven Meisel, Lady Gaga for Vogue Italia, 2021 |
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| Emma Corrin for W Magazine, Haute Couture Autumn/Winter 2021, Tim Walker, 2021. |
It was a spectacular exhibit. Schiaparelli lead a fascinating life and created a new way of dressing that is still influential to this day. Surrealism really lived on through her clothes, shows and jewellery. The Maison is flourishing today with Daniel Roseberry riffing on her archives and carrying on with her legacy of innovative design.
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| It was pouring rain after we finished the exhibit- the V & A is one of our favourite Museums |
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We had brought our salt beef beigel for a quick bite after the exhibit.
We sat under the awning at the V& A café. |
After some more wandering and a coffee stop, we took the Tube to Southwark station. Luckily the rain stopped and the sun came out.
We had tickets to see Alexander Zeldin's latest play Care, which deals with the gruelling loneliness and life in a care home. It is an unwavering portrait of what it means to be old, and an indictment of a system that leads to such acute loneliness. It explores this issue from the point of view of Joan, who thinks she has been admitted on a temporary basis. The set is brightly lit and it portrays the frayed edges of the care system. There are a number of other residents and the play also deals with her daughter and grandsons who are dealing with the sudden death of their father a year ago. They cannot cope and have taken Joan to the care home. Very powerful and well-acted. The other residents and staff are explored as full characters.
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| Outside of the Young Vic |
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| We were a bit early so checked out a bookstore across from the theatre. |
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| Great quote from Hannah Arendt in the bookstore |
There is a large restaurant, the Cut, that is part of the theatre. We had a bite to eat before the 7:30 p.m. curtain.
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| The Cut restaurant- theatre is to the left of the photo |
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| Before theatre light dinner |
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Inside of the theatre-- spare set- in the care home. Flourescent lighting.
There was a good crowd on a Tuesday evening |
The play was just over two hours without an intermission. Very realistically done, one can follow Joan's deterioration. Her daughter and grandsons don't visit for a three month period. The head caregiver is portrayed as kindly and fills the gap of family in a number of ways. The stretched care system is portrayed well- lights go off sometimes and supplies are limited. Excellent theatre and a very relevant subject.
We took the Tube back to our place. Another excellent day in London. Tuesday will be our last full day in London, as we head back to Toronto on Wednesday June 10.
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At the time of posting this blog, we are back in Toronto. I will be doing one more post on Friday, July 12 to wrap up our last day in London.
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