Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the print edition of the 2022 spring-summer issue of Luxus+ Mag. Click hereto see the full issue.
Born in 1890 in the Italian capital, Elsa Schiaparelli became over the years a legendary and avant-garde fashion designer, famous for her eccentricity and deliberately provocative character. Her creations also bore the surrealist touch of the artists who inspired Schiaparelli, including the well-known Salvador Dalí. A look back at the history of an emblematic collaboration.
103 years earlier, in 1919, Elsa Schiaparelli arrived in Paris, a year in which she had not yet realized her talent for fashion. However, her interest in art began to manifest itself when she befriended Dadaist artists, who rejected convention and questioned the norms of art, literature and other intellectuals.
However, it was not until 1927 that the Italian designer took her first step into fashion. This was a major departure from the other designers of the time, as she was known as one of the first to integrate art into her designs. Her first collection is the embodiment of this desire, consisting of jumpers with large trompe l’oeil bows. They became best-sellers and emblematic pieces of the brand, which propelled it onto the fashion scene. Vogue was quick to call them “masterpieces”.
She became an accomplished designer at the head of a successful fashion house, and it was then that, during the 1930s, she had the ambition to innovate and surprise more and more. One of the encounters that changed the course of her life and the history of her brand forever was with the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dalí.
The Dalí – Schiaparelli era
The friendship between the artist and the designer led to numerous collaborations. Together they created several fashion pieces that were marked by the casualness and eccentricity that perfectly characterized these two people.
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Featured photo : © Schiaparelli
