Schiaparelli is a French couture house known for fusing art, fashion and creative inventiveness. In its early years, the brand was closely associated with various artists, in particular with representatives of the surrealist movement of the 1930s to 1950s.
origins
Elsa Schiaparelli first made a name for herself in the early 1920s with a knitwear collection featuring trompe-l’oeil effects. In the decade that followed, her eponymous house gained recognition on the Parisian and international fashion scene. Schiaparelli soon spawned collaborations with European artists such as Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dali, Man Rey, Meret Oppenheim, and others.
evolution
Between the 1930s and 1950s, Elsa Schiaparelli shaped the fashion scene with her unusual approach to design, which was heavily influenced by surrealism. The House’s collections brought new ideas to life, with collections emerging that featured oversized gold jewellery, emblematic embroidery and lavish embellishments. The collections were created under leitmotifs and often in collaboration with other creative minds and led the viewer and later the wearer into new spheres of the afterlife. After more than two remarkably successful decades, Schiaparelli closed her home in the 1950s.
news
The French fashion house was quiet for a long time, until 2014 when the first Schiaparelli Haute Couture collection since 1954 was shown. Not least when Daniel Roseberry took over the artistic direction in 2019, the house flourished. The SS22 couture show resonated with the fashion industry with a collection inspired by Elsa Schiaparelli’s greatest inspiration: surrealism. Schiaparelli carries on the rich legacy of Elsa Schiaparelli, in which Roseberry combines the house’s roots with a new, contemporary approach. In the summer of 2022, the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris opened an exhibition dedicated to Elsa Schiaparelli and illustrating the influence she had on mid-century fashion.
