It can be a strange and disheartening experience to hear people who had never heard Elsa Schiaparelli's name up until a few seasons ago, suddenly talking about her and "the codes of her fashion house" as if they were experts and scholars. Their behaviour really makes you wonder where these people were while the house was lying in fashion limbo, but this is not the only question that is currently torturing Schiap's genuine fans. The key dilemma at the moment is what Schiap's house is all about.
Critics who were hoping to see lots of shocking pink nuances and Surrealism on the Schiaparelli runway during Paris Haute Couture Week in January were disappointed. The first couture show after 60 years was indeed a bit of a surprise.
Former Rochas designer Marco Zanini was appointed Creative Director at the house of Schiaparelli last September, but the relaunch of the fashion house has been a long process that started in 2006 when Italian entrepreneur and Tod’s President Diego Della Valle bought the label.
In 2012 the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York paid homage to her with the Prada and Schiaparelli exhibition (the first one after the Philadelphia and Paris exhibitions in 2003 and 2004...); in the same year ex-model Farida Khelfa was appointed spokesperson for the label and a year ago the fashion house opened a couture salon for Schiaparelli in Place Vendôme, Paris (where Schiap's store and atelier used to be based).
Last summer Christian Lacroix created 18 Haute Couture designs as a one-off tribute to Elsa Schiaparelli. Speculations were rife when last year Zanini was appointed as Creative Director and for a few months expectations were high, but the final results were a bit puzzling.
Zanini went into a search for an irreverent, cosmopolitan, educated, and daring woman, an elegant non-conformist in a nutshell and, to find her, rather than looking at archival pieces, he decided to homage Schiap's personality.
The show opened with a full-length evening gown characterised by draped motifs and with a shocking pink and white pattern that Zanini dubbed "Ciel ètoile" on a blue background. The mood then switched to masculinity with a black wool tuxedo with loose pants and a jacket that could be turned inside out to reveal frothy white silk ruffles.
The reversible tailored jacket came back also later on, in variations that included panels of ostrich feathers or further chiffon ruches, but the collection featured an eclectic mix of designs including a dark blue bodysuit with gold ivy motifs by the House of Lesage matched with a polka dot navy chiffon robe (dubbed by Zanini as "La pluie de Paris"); playful prints of flowers blossoming into women's profiles; shorts matched with bikini tops, a voluminous green satin duchesse reversible opera coat, and a T-shirt dress decorated in stripes of multi-coloured micro-sequins.
Everything was flamboyant and a bit theatrical, including the sculptural white bride pantsuit with sequinned embroideries and ombré veil.
There were no references to sport and flying suits or to trompe l'oeil knitwear (what a shame) and no collaborations with any special artists. Schiap's Surrealism was replaced instead by absurdism: her trademark leg-of-mutton sleeves were for example taken to freakish and preposterous proportions and attached to a long chiffon dress.
Further Schiap references were hidden in the details such as Stephen Jones' wave-like tricorn hat that hinted at Christian Bérard's drawings for Schiap and a tiara in the Ursa Major formation, a reference to the birthmarks on Schiaparelli's face but also to the connection with her astronomer great-uncle.
The looks were accessorised with flat crocodile sandals decorated with feathers for a touch of sporty tribalism and with Gripoix jewels representing a Venus flytrap ring or ivy leaves crawling up the models' arms. Though eclectic, the collection wasn't certainly coherent and seemed to feature quite a few echoes of Galliano, Lacroix and Gaultier, designers who, in turn, echoed Schiap in their own work, so you ended up getting the impression of experiencing a double déjà vu.
Lacroix's designs disappeared shortly afterwards they were showcased in Paris; Zanini's suit with reversible jacket reappeared a few days ago on Tilda Swinton on the red carpet at the Berlinale. You wonder, though, if that's the only piece we will see from this collection, because if that's the case, the house of Schiaparelli will be a box capable of generating only media revenues, but unable to produce any tangible profits. In a nutshell, if just a few months ago Schiap was a girlfriend in a coma, now she's stirring, but she has woken yet.
Critics stated Zanini showed he has potential, but he will definitely need more than his sideburns and tattoos to prove he has the genuine irreverence he needs to lead the fashion house with the shocking fame founded by a rebel woman (note - a rebel AND a woman - and consider also the fact that there are currently very few women designers out there...) who broke rule after rule and who wanted to shock the bourgeoisie.
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