Review
Her dedication to fashion made her one of the most recognized and famous designers of the 20th century. Her models were considered daring and surprising for the canons of her time, since many of them included extravagant elements. In addition to dresses, she also dedicated herself to the creation of perfumes and accessories, having great success. She was the first women's fashion designer to appear on the cover of the American magazine Time, in 1934. She introduces the skort in the women's wardrobe, which will transfer to sports. She was the first European to receive the Neiman Marcus Award for services to fashion.
Justifications
- Haute couture designer.
- Women's sports fashion designer.
- Surrealism designer.
- Jewellery designer.
- Perfume designer.
- Businesswoman.
- Poetess.
Biography
She was the second daughter of a well-to-do, educated family. At the end of her school years she decided to study philosophy, but her secret fondness for poetry led her to publish a collection of poems, entitled Arethsa, when she was only twenty-three years old. In England, she met her later husband, Count William de Wendt de Kerlor, whom she married hastily in 1914, despite her parents' opposition.
With the outbreak of the First World War, the couple moved to the French town of Nice. In the spring of 1919, she and her husband moved to Boston and then to New York, where the earl began a passionate relationship with the dancer Isadora Duncan. At that time, Schiaparelli had her only daughter, Yvonne ("Gogo"), but she divorced her husband.
The precarious economic situation in which she was left after the marriage’s breakup made her decide to look for work, just as other American women did when she lived in the United States. Thus, in 1927, Schiaparelli opened her first store on Rue de la Paix, whose door bore the emblem "Pour le sport" ('For sport'), as she wanted to dress women in the style she had known during her American stage, based on loose functional garments that could be combined with each other. Two years later, she presented her first complete collection, a precursor to prêt-a-porter, a concept that was not yet known.
Until the outbreak of World War II, the Italian lived her most splendid time. There were many women who abandoned other fashion greats, such as Jean Patou or Coco Chanel, and followed Schiaparelli.
Clearly influenced by cubism and surrealism, she separated objects from their usual context and placed them in a totally different one.
Her first collection, Detente, mira y escucha, was followed by Música (1937), Circo (1938), Mariposas, Commedia dell'Arte, Astrología, Pagar y llevar... Each presentation was a true theatrical spectacle, which explained why she easily became the darling of the press, something that made her be at odds for life with Chanel, who referred to her as "that Italian who makes dresses". In fairness, it must be said that Schiaparelli referred to the French as "that boring provincial".
A lover of colour, she made one of Bérard's pink shades her own, a colour later baptized by her friend Paul Poiret as shocking pink ('surprising pink'), and enthusiastically promoted it on scarves, lipsticks or evening wear. In fact, she liked this adjective (shocking) so much that she used it for everything in her life: her last collection, presented in 1952, was called Shocking Elegance, and when her biography appeared two years later it was titled: Shocking Life (A surprising life).
In this way, Schiaparelli decided that all her perfumes should have a name that began with the letter "s", the initial of her last name and the famous adjective.
During World War II, she went to the United States and in 1949 she opened a store in New York. She then settled in Hollywood (it must be said that, of all the couturiers, she was the most successful in the world of cinema), where she designed the costumes for actresses such as Zsa Zsa Gabor and Mae West. However, her most remembered dresses are those made for Joan Crawford or Katharine Hepburn -one of the actresses who was linked to her forever-, whose style after meeting Schiaparelli changed from disheveled to indolent, and became one of the most imitated to this day.
In April 2004, 250 of the designer's best pieces were exhibited at the Paris Fashion Museum, most of them were prior to 1939.
Text extracted from:
http://www.mcnbiografias.com/app-bio/do/show?key=schiaparelli-elsa (02/04/2022)
Didactic approach
It can be used in the subjects of
-Visual and Plastic Education, as a model of textile creation.
-Art History, within the framework of the Surrealist and Dadaist movements.
-In Fashion in Art and Design Schools.
-Contemporary History, as a contemporary reference to contextualise the 20th century.
-In Spanish, Catalan or world literature through her literary works.
The author should be introduced when:
- Students are interested in fashion, trends, and design as a way of expressing their own identity and expressing their tastes or aesthetic preferences.
- A homogeneous student group can be observed in the aesthetics and style of their clothes, in order to question stereotypes and uniformity.
- It is necessary to develop creative processes.
- There is an aim to establish connections between different disciplines that were involved in surrealism: literature, poetry, painting, design, etcetera.
Documents
