Elsa Schiaparelli's Haute Couture: Femininity, Surrealism, and Design

This essay explores the impact of Elsa Schiaparelli on haute couture fashion in the 1920s and 1930s, focusing on her unique blend of surrealism and notions of femininity. Schiaparelli's designs challenged conventional views of women's fashion by incorporating elements of surrealist art and exploring the hidden aspects of feminine sexuality. Her collaborations with artists like Salvador Dali resulted in iconic pieces like the Lobster Dress, which defied traditional elegance. The essay also discusses Schiaparelli's rivalry with Coco Chanel and her innovative use of mannequins to express surrealist themes. Ultimately, Schiaparelli's work pushed the boundaries of fashion, leaving a lasting legacy that continues to inspire contemporary designers. Desklib offers a wide range of study resources, including past papers and solved assignments, to support students in their academic pursuits.

Running Head: Elsa Schiaparelli Haute Couture
Elsa SchiaParelli Haute Couture

Elsa Schiaparelli Haute Couture
The curvy sexuality of feminine form is timeless ponder of the fashion domain especially in
the time of early twentieth century when important worldly affairs effected the notions of
femininity. There was a major turnover when the works of the designers like Elsa
Schiaparelli made a mark in female society with fashionable designs (Collins, 2002).
For understanding the designers of Elsa which were considered to be very unique and bizarre,
one has to go in the past in look in to her unusual beginnings. She was born in a very rich but
an aristocratic family. She was very creative since her childhood days. She was so hungry
with her imagination that she even consumed the texts on ancient myths and legends & wrote
volumes of poetry on Pagan culture.
Figure 1: Vam Collections, The Pagan Culture Dress, 2018, Digital Image, Vam Collections
Elsa since her beginning of life saw the end of both world wars and also the inception of
suffragette movement. That was the time when makeup was gaining popularity. The designs
of Elsa over crossed the mainstream convention with the usage of the pre-existing themes of
females and also with the conventional sketch of femininity. She created such designs
intentionally so that they provoke the change in the traditional though processes and
challenged perceptions which were pre-conceived about the retiring feminine beauty. She
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Elsa Schiaparelli Haute Couture
created designs which did not show flesh of women but also raise the idea of hiding feminine
sexuality in plain sight (Christie, 2013).
Schiaparelli’s designs were surrealist and they reflected her spirit in those designs. Her
designs were made to create a trademark in the fashion industry and that is what happened.
As her designs got the popularity, women were wearing her clothes everywhere and liked
them on their own bodies. Elsa worked with Salvador Dali and she recognized a fresh wave
of fetishism in trend by creating the designs that alluded to physique and her designs
intentionally represented women on erotic map. In the early 19th Century women were
discouraged wearing revealing clothes but Elsa’s clothes were like that and they were likes by
everyone (Mitchell, 2004).
Figure 2: Vogue, Attending Jacques Fath's ball in costume, 2018, Digital Image, Vogue
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Elsa Schiaparelli Haute Couture
Elsa’s collaboration with Dali gave her the freedom to explore more about feminism. Lobster
dress was one of her favourite designs which were born out of the relationship with Dali. It
created a flowing cream extension of the female body. Embarked with green and yellow
flowers and red waistband, Elsa’s intention with the lobster dress was to get is worn into the
evening parties or social gatherings (Barger, 2017).
Figure 2: Lisawallerrogers, The Lobster Dress, 2018, Digital Image, Lisawallerrogers
In the 19th century, there were drastic changes in the social concepts of femininity. Whereas
Coco Chanel designed elegant clothing for women, Elsa’s designs were intended to connect
with the female form viler instincts of human. Elsa enjoyed her rivalry with Coco Chanel.
While Elsa’s work was mystical, Coco Chanel’s designs were more wearable if compared to
the standards of time. At the time when her mystic designs were being explored, Elsa started
including sexuality in her clothes very regularly. This provoked an era of fashionable women
and gave her a one of a kind capability to sell her clothes. Elsa was up to doing something
which Chanel would never do. She could just read minds of Chanel and created designs
which were not created by Coco at all (Roche, 2016). She was out for designing just
outrageous garments.
In that era, the usage of the mannequins was becoming popular day by day in the Surrealist
Fashion Moment especially throughout the exhibition International de Surrealism or
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Elsa Schiaparelli Haute Couture
International Exhibition of Surrealism in Paris in the year 1938. Schiaparelli was known to
use her surrealist methods and values in her designs. These designs were shown her circus
line by the side of opening of the exposition and displayed how smitten Elsa was by the
surrealist moment. In title of Pavilion d’Elegance, there was a part in the exposition in which
Elsa’s design display which was of mannequins wrapped, naked and dead body like lying
above the couch of flowers, the factual clothing hung independently as if out to dried up in a
summer burning day (Larusso, 2018).
She was called to be as a devil women by Jean Cocteau. He almost tried his best to prove that
this was correct. In the eye of the me who were in the 20th Century, female sexuality was
unveiled as the celebration or a festival which was not sort of fast drop in hell and Elsa was
as usual leading the fashion industry. Women were warped, veiled and sometimes in disguise
in the designs of Elsa and when once they had been to the establishment on the Place
Vendome, they has traded their souls for such outrageously outlandish garments.
Elsa was very much enthusiastic with the mannequins, from their fetishbility to the scariness
of humanoid looks. While the mannequins were taken to be as the everyday objects, they
could be taken out of the situation as coat hanger and might be focussed to the number of acts
and trials which if carried out on the humans, they would not be apt or legal (Yotka, 2017).
If talked from the perspective of surrealism, mannequins were taken to be as pseudo human
which exemplify the humanity’s subconscious cravings, nervousness and erotic gestures and
passion. In the altering globe, pushed ahead by suffragette movement, the plan of masculinity
& men was regularly being confronted. Women were able to discover their own individuality
and they were attaining their position in their own rights which were individual from their
husbands. The mannequin, mainly woman, is existing, far-off and unachievable, & then
becomes the supreme Lady. With none capability to object to the outside globe about her, the
mannequin can change in any picture the masculine performer needs & there put down her
charm (Evans, 2018).
Not like other movements, the freedom of thought in the surrealist movement allowed the
performers the chance of independence. That was the only boundary that was there in the
imagination. Elsa use such liberty of thought in her work particularly those which included
the shape of livelihood appearance like Skeleton Dress and Evening Belt. The well-known
Fragrance by Elsa, shockingly took on some of the principles of the mannequin. The outline
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of bottle which was curvy, imitating a curvy lady is a primary example of the Surrealist ideal
in between livelihood humans and inanimate objects.
Figure 3: Vam Collections, The Skeleton Dress, 2018, Digital Image, Vam Collections
The association with garments and the bare body was vital to most of Elsa’s ideas. Her love
of accessories, like Evening Belt, gave an opportunity for appearance of her Surrealist
standards. By using extraordinary resources in her designs, Elsa was capable to add in a huge
number of senses, sexual implication and double engenders in one little clothing piece (Art,
2003).
The Surrealist movement in fashion industry helped in incepting of the readymade
clothing, off-the-rack clothing and fashion made from everyday objects. By finding the
exceptionality within the ordinary, Schiaparelli and Dali’s association gave wind to a new
time of aggravated thought. Schiaparelli’s Skeleton Dress covered the path into this appealing
and often times worrying creative province, and have given a base for modern artists such
Lady Gaga and Bjork.
Fashion trend is inherent dream and is creative scenery, on which there lies only boundary of
the creativity of the human. While Elsa was declared bankrupt with her clothing house and
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fallen in the pages of the book of history, the legacy of hers lives in the extended Surrealist
scenery of modern art (Sweeney, 2015).
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Elsa Schiaparelli Haute Couture
References
Collins, B., 2002. Elsa Schiaparelli:Fashion and Surrealism. CircumSpice, Volume 64.
Sweeney, J., 2015. Elsa Schiaparelli, The New Woman, and Surrealist Politics.
Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, 17(3), pp. 309-329.
Christie, 2013. THE Personal Collection Of Elsa Schiaparelli. [Online]
Available at:
https://www.christies.com/presscenter/pdf/2013/elease_the_personal_collection_of_elsa_
schiaparelli_paris_23_january_2014.pdf
[Accessed 17 June 2018].
Mitchell, A. L., 2004. Finding Futurist Fashion: Lost Links to Haute Couture. [Online]
Available at: https://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu:180593/datastream/PDF/view
[Accessed 17 June 2018].
Barger, J. W., 2017. Imagination and Daring: “Dalí and Schiaparelli” Debuts. [Online]
Available at: http://www.remarqed.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Dali-Schiaparelli-
Announcement_English.pdf
[Accessed 17 June 2018].
Roche, O. L., 2016. Remembering Elsa Schiaparelli: A Look at the World’s First Surrealist
Fashion Designer. [Online]
Available at: https://lonewolfmag.com/elsa-schiaparelli-surrealist-fashion-designer/
[Accessed 17 June 2018].
Larusso, C., 2018. Elsa Schiaparelli’s Surrealism. [Online]
Available at: https://www.noodle.com/articles/elsa-schiaparellis-surrealism
[Accessed 17 June 2018].
Yotka, S., 2017. Dalí and Schiaparelli Invented the Art-Fashion Collaboration—A New Exhibit
Celebrates Their Shocking Works. [Online]
Available at: https://www.vogue.com/article/dali-schiaparlli-in-daring-fashion-exhibit-dali-
museum
[Accessed 17 June 2018].
Evans, C., 2018. Elsa Schiaparelli. [Online]
Available at: https://fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/clothing-closures-embellishments/
applique
[Accessed 17 June 2018].
Art, P. M. o., 2003. SHOCKING! THE ART & FASHION OF ELSA SCHIAPARELLI. [Online]
Available at:
https://web.archive.org/web/20080529134356/http://www.philamuseum.org/
micro_sites/exhibitions/schiaparelli/kids/schiap-pack.pdf
[Accessed 17 June 2018].
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