The Schiaparelli revamp: Surrealism’s fashion renegade returns to her throne

Even in today’s highly experimental fashion arena, it seems like a fantasy that a shoe-shaped hat could ever be considered high fashion. That, however, was the fantastical world of Elsa Schiaparelli. A true original, “Schiap” was a dominant fashion force in the ’30s and ’40s, and was hailed as a genius by her contemporaries (a 1934 Time article listed her as even more influential than rival Coco Chanel). Best known for pioneering a sense of playfulness and whimsy in fashion, the Italian-born designer captured the time’s Surrealist zeitgeist in collaborations with artists Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau.

Schiaparelli’s most iconic pieces included a skeleton-like quilted dress, a gown of trompe l’oeil rips and tears and the famed Lobster Dress, which made titillating history when Wallis Simpson wore it in her engagement photos. Schiaparelli was also one of the first to bring colour to couture, including her signature, shocking pink.

By the end of the ’40s, a new generation of couturiers had emerged, including Cristóbal Balenciaga and Christian Dior, whose New Look would transfix the fashion world. In 1954, the house of Schiaparelli declared bankruptcy and the designer retired to her home in Tunisia.

After decades of obscurity in the archives of fashion history, new interest in Schiaparelli’s imaginative aesthetic came to a head in 2012 with the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s exhibit Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.

This year, Tod’s CEO, Diego Della Valle, relaunched the house of Schiaparelli with a one-off collection designed by couturier Christian Lacroix. Exaggerated mock pannier-like pockets, a fur skirt and a black-and-pink-striped gown are just a few examples of his anything-goes interpretations of Schiap’s signatures. In September, Rochas designer Marco Zanini was announced as Lacroix’s permanent successor. His first collection will debut next month at couture week in Paris, and we expect big things. Surreal things. Shocking, even.

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