Published to accompany the major exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, a must-have book for all fashion lovers

Brilliant, witty and liberated, Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973) was a key figure in the world of mid-20th-century fashion. From her first sweaters in 1927, decorated with trompe-l’oeil bow motifs, to her baroque gowns of the early 1950s, via her designs inspired by her friendship with Surrealist artists – the lobster dress and shoe hat inspired by Salvador Dalí, and her collaborations with Man Ray and Jean Cocteau – this striking and talented woman shaped fashion history with her vivid imagination. Her salons in the Place Vendôme were designed by Jean-Michel Frank, and her designs immortalized in sketches by Leonor Fini and Marcel Vertès. Diving into the world of Schiaparelli is a fascinating journey into the heart of Paris couture.

Contents List:

Preface by Johannes Huth
Elsa Schiaparelli, a Last Dance - Olivier Gabet

Essays
Shocking: Life between the Lines - Marie-Sophie Carron de la Carrière
Man Ray and Elsa Schiaparelli: Fair Weather for Creativity - Emmanuelle de l’Écotais
Three Asides - Patrick Mauriès
Dressing the Modern Woman - Dilys Blum
When Dalí Discovered Fashion - Jean-Louis Gaillemin

Clothing and Accessories
Elsa Schiaparelli - Valérie Belin

Jewelry
Costume Jewelry and Accessories

Schiaparelli Today
More Beautiful When Broken: A Conversation with Daniel Roseberry - Hanya Yanaghirara

Appendices
Clothing and Accessories from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Paris Collection
Bibliography
Chronology of the Life of Elsa Schiaparelli

About the Author:

Marie-Sophie Carron de la Carrière is a senior curator at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and head of the fashion collections from 1800 to present.

At an early age, BillyBoy* chose two mentors: Bugs Bunny and Elsa Schiaparelli.

From Bugs Bunny, he learned the basics of how to behave in society and how to manage life’s wicked turns; to be coy, smart, witty, and to always dress appropriately with the assurance of Beau Brummell. But most of all, his cartoon mentor taught him a lighthearted approach to life, and an entertaining charm that is to personality what humor is to good conversation. From Schiaparelli, who he discovered at age fourteen through a very strange hat in a Paris flea market, he learned the meanings of love and art. His human mentor opened doors that he “never even dreamed existed,” as the title character says to her nephew in Auntie Mame. As Schiap turned into a genuine passion, she became a golden thread that led to all sorts of discoveries, encounters, and inspirations over the next forty years. A wealthy orphan with a glamorous but complicated background, BillyBoy* adopted the legendary designer as a guardian angel of sorts, and has spent a lifetime searching for her, through her clothes.

Inspired by Shocking Life, Schiaparelli's own memoir, Frocking Life will resonate with anyone who loves fashion and flamboyant storytelling. Built around some of the most iconic pieces ever created by the designer, this book is about endless discoveries, and the meaning that can be transmitted, across decades, by a simple piece of clothing. Peopled by dazzling characters from Schiaparelli's own inner circle and the worlds of art and fashion — Saint Laurent, Vreeland, Warhol to name a few — this is a scintillating yet profound homage to a woman who saw life as art, and inspired a young boy to do the same. 

BillyBoy* has always been a strange fruit and it must be said, not everyone could have a bite of it. The press adored him since he was, as author Edmund White wrote, “good copy.” In fact, his thrilling journey through fashion, culture, and art are deeply tied to what he wore for each occasion.  One day, it is a skintight silver lamé studded outfit by Nudie Cohen (the designer of Elvis Presley’s elaborate ensembles), which was originally made for David Cassidy. For a tea with the Begum Aga Khan at the Ritz, he played the part of the dandy in a conservative suit with impeccable tie, topped by a Vivienne Westwood/Malcolm McClaren Buffalo hat adorned with a silk lettuce leaf. For an interview at home with German Vogue, he transformed into a sex kitten in hot pants and an Yves Saint Laurent sheer blouse. This book is both BillyBoy*'s personal story of his intense spiritual and metaphysical journey through life, and also his authoritative insight into the life and work of Elsa Schiaparelli who became such an influence on him.

As an historian and collector, his close examination of the milieu of European and American, Scandinavian and Asian high fashion and his detailed research into Schiaparelli's haute couture seasonal collections (and her vast number of licensed fashion and accessories) will appeal not only to fashionistas and haute couture devotees and collectors. It explores their relationship to her era, through the many friendships and relationships with the iconic people in fashion he forged over four decades. Anecdotes of varied stars in all aspects of culture will interest those who study 20th-century art and history.

About the Author:

BillyBoy* is a collector, artist, and designer whose creations are part of the permanent collections of The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Musée des Arts de la Mode, among many other institutions. As a collector, he is famous for his interest in couture and fashion dolls, and he is the owner of the largest private collection of Elsa Schiaparelli garments in the world. Jean Druesedow is the director of the Kent State University Museum and was formerly the president of the Costume Society of America.

Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973), one of the leading fashion designers of the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s, was known for her flair for the unusual.

The first designer to use shoulder pads and animal prints, and the inventor of shocking pink, Schiaparelli collaborated with artists including Jean Cocteau, Alberto Giacometti, and Salvador Dalí to create extraordinary garments such as the Dalí Lobster Dress. Schiaparelli had an affluent clientele, from Katharine Hepburn to Marlene Dietrich, who embraced her outrageous but elegant designs. She designed aviator Amy Johnson’s wardrobe for her solo flight to Cape Town in 1936 and the culottes for tennis champion Lilí Álvarez that outraged the lawn tennis establishment, and her clothes appeared in more than 30 films, including Every Day’s a Holiday with Mae West and Moulin Rouge.

Schiaparelli’s fascinating autobiography charts her rise from resident of a rat-infested apartment to designer to the stars.

About the Author:

Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973) was one of the leading fashion designers of the mid 20th century. She is best known for translating Surrealism into fashion. Today, her garments are part of the permanent costume and textiles collections at major museums, and her work has been the subject of major museum exhibitions.

Published on the occasion of the couture house’s ninetieth anniversary, this book celebrates Elsa Schiaparelli’s shared creative passion with the twentieth century’s most esteemed artists.

Known for her bravado and boundary-pushing dresses, Elsa Schiaparelli is undoubtedly one of the greatest icons of twentieth-century fashion. After launching her eponymous haute couture house in Paris in 1927, the Roman-born designer captured the attention of the world at large not only thanks to her trompe l’oeil patterns and surrealist forms — but also because of her creative relationships with some of the epoch’s most renowned artists.

From Salvador Dalí, who collaborated with Schiaparelli on her infamous Lobster Dress to Alberto Giacometti’s furnishings for her salon and René Magritte, whose surrealist works inspired some of the designer’s creations, this beautifully illustrated tome delves into the couturiere’s fascinating rapports with these artistic legends. Through never-before-seen photography, intimate anecdotes, and essays penned by some of today’s most authoritative fashion critics, curators, and personalities, this volume is the first definitive work dedicated to the shared inspiration between the designer and her circle of artist friends.

Unique in its breadth of artwork and diverse contributors, this visually stunning book is a must for anyone interested in avant-garde art, twentieth-century fashion, or thought-provoking design.

About the Authors:

Hamish Bowles is the International Editor at Large for Vogue, and recognized as one of the most respected authorities on fashion and interior design. In addition to collecting and amassing an extensive private collection of historic haute couture, Bowles has curated numerous exhibitions, including Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years (2001); Balenciaga: Spanish Master (2010); and Balenciaga and Spain (2011), and has also written countless articles, reviews, and books, including: Vogue: The Covers (2011); Vogue: The Editor’s Eye (2012); Vogue Weddings: Brides, Dresses, Designers (2012); and Vogue and The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute: Parties, Exhibitions, & People (2014).

Donald Albrecht is an American curator specializing in design and architecture. He’s curated exhibitions such as Paris/New York: Design Fashion Culture, 1925–1940 for the Museum of the City of New York and New Directions in Sustainable Architecture and Design for the National Building Museum. He has worked with famous designers like Andrée Putman and Michael Gabellini. He teaches architecture at the American Academy.

André Léon Talley is an esteemed fashion authority, author, and contributing editor at Vogue.

Dawn Ades is Professor Emeritus of art history at Oxford University. She has additionally collaborated on exhibitions in London and Venice, including the exhibition celebrating Salvador Dalí’s centennial at the Palazzo Grassi.

Dilys Blum is a curator of costume and textiles at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Justine Picardie is a British author who wrote the bestselling 2011 biography of Coco Chanel, Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life. She is the editor in chief of British Harper’s Bazaar and British Town and Country.

Angelo Flaccavento is an Italian fashion journalist whose work has appeared in Vogue and Business of Fashion, among others.

Suzy Menkes is a British journalist and fashion critic. 

Christian Lacroix is a French fashion designer and founder of his eponymous label.

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Пролистать книгу Schiaparelli and the Artists

Although separated by time, Miuccia Prada and Elsa Schiaparelli-both Italian, both feminists-share striking affinities in terms of their design strategies and fashion manifestoes.

Presented as an intimate "conversation," Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations aims to tease out formal and conceptual similarities between the two designers. Striking photographs and insightful texts illustrate the parallels between the two, including their preferences for interesting textiles and prints, eccentric color palettes, and a bold and playful approach to styling and accessories.

Schiaparelli, in the 1920s through 50s, and Prada, from the late 1980s to today, exploited the narrative possibilities of prints, sought out unconventional textiles, played with ideas of good and bad taste, and manipulated scale for surrealistic outcomes. Contemporary art plays a major role in the work of these inventive women-Schiaparelli in her famous collaborations with Dali and Cocteau, and Prada via her Fondazione Prada.

Blending the historic with the contemporary, the catalogue brings the masterworks of both designers together into a grand conversation between the most important women fashion designers to ever emerge from Italy.

Vogue on Designers is a new series of fashion books from British Vogue which tell the fascinating stories of iconic designers accompanied by world-class photographs and illustrations from the Vogue archive.

Vogue called Elsa Schiaparelli a genius madder and more original than her contemporaries, championing and illustrating her designs from the first picture of the revolutionary Bow Knot sweater in 1927 through to the Surrealist Tear Dress and Shoe Hat of the late 1930s.

A true original, collaborating with artists such as Salvador Dali and Man Ray, she made trompe-l'oeil images, dresses with skeletal forms, perfume bottles in the shape of Mae West's torso, and pioneered the use of man-made fabrics. Vogue on Elsa Schiaparelli presents the enduring legacy of this daring and visionary designer.

British Vogue has charted the careers of designers through the decades. Its unique archive of photographs, taken by the leading photographers of the day from Cecil Beaton to Mario Testino, and original illustrations, together with its stable of highly respected fashion writers, make British Vogue the most authoritative and prestigious source of reference on fashion. With a circulation of over 160,000 and a readership of over 1,400,000, no brand is better positioned to present a library on the great fashion designers of the modern age.