Underway for more than four years, the House of Schiaparelli is thrilled to reveal Shocking! The surreal world of Elsa Schiaparelli, a defining art and fashion retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
Conceived and realised as an exploration that bridges past and present, the exhibition presents the golden years of a visionary female designer within the larger context of her inspiring relationships to leading artists of the time, while also highlighting how the Maison upholds and embodies her legacy today.
The opening and reception, held on July 4, 2022, coincide with the Fall Winter 2022 Haute Couture runway show from Schiaparelli artistic director, Daniel Roseberry, whose creations are showcased among upwards of 520 works on display.
This marks the museum’s first exhibition dedicated to the Italian couturière since the reopening of the House of Schiaparelli, which had closed in 1954. In 2006, Diego Della Valle, the founder of Tod’s, purchased the Maison, restoring it to the original Paris address at 21 Place Vendôme seven years later. While discussions for Shocking! The surreal world of Elsa Schiaparelli began before Roseberry’s arrival in 2019, his exceptional reimagining of Schiaparelli’s artistry and innovation have added momentum and further interest to her unique story.
“The exhibition is based on the intention to discover Elsa Schiaparelli – a woman of today who lived in another era — through her rapport with the art and artists at the heart of the retrospective. But it also speaks to the brilliant influence that her work and her heritage had on several generations of couturiers and designers. We have given this cultural dimension to our project as a means of transmission – a desire to share both knowledge and emotion,” says Dephine Bellini, CEO of Schiaparelli.
Within the Christine & Stephen A. Schwarzman fashion galleries, the universe of Elsa Schiaparelli is enriched with a striking cultural focus that includes artworks, photographs, illustrations, jewellery, objets d’art and furniture that support her expansive and bold ideas about fashion between the 1920s and 1940s. At the exact moment she was redefining the modern woman’s wardrobe, she drew inspiration from a constellation of avant-garde talents and friends.
From her association with the Surrealists – including Man Ray, Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dalí and Meret Oppenheim – to her collaborations with Alberto Giacometti and Jean Schlumberger, the exhibition celebrates the people and movements that influenced her avant-garde style. The exhibition also spotlights iconic designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Azzedine Alaïa, John Galliano and Christian Lacroix who have paid tribute to her through their own creations. Amidst enchanting scenography by Nathalie Crinière, visitors will discover Schiaparelli’s wildly successful fragrances and step into reconstructions of her couture salons from 1935.
The final rooms are dedicated to Roseberry’s evolution of the Maison’s heritage, which echoes across the collections. Interpretations of the emblematic codes – the padlock, the measuring tape, the Shocking pink, the surreal jewellery – are proposed as daring and desirable contemporary designs that invite women to reveal their personality or become the person they wish to be.
Having dressed Lady Gaga in custom Schiaparelli for thisPresident Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony; Beyoncé for the 63rd Grammy Awards ceremony; and Bella Hadid for the Cannes Film Festival, Roseberry has established a new generation of muses who not only shape the culture but the conversation around it.
In this way, his work emerges as a metamorphosis of their visions coming together – in the exhibition and beyond – to write the future of a Maison that was incomparably shocking for its time.
All images courtesy of Schiaparelli
Photographer Dominique Maitre and Christophe Delliere
PR Agency Lucien Pages Communication