Born in 1890 to an aristocratic Roman family, Elsa Schiaparelli revolutionized fashion through her avant-garde designs and surrealist collaborations. Self-admittedly “difficult,” she transformed her rebellious nature into groundbreaking creativity.In 1927, Schiaparelli launched her fashion house with a collection of hand-knit sweaters featuring trompe l’oeil designs. Her most famous piece, the “bow-knot” sweater, featured an optical illusion that caught the fashion world’s attention and was featured in Vogue.
The brand became known for:
- Collaborations with Salvador Dalí, resulting in pieces like the iconic Lobster Dress and Shoe Hat
- Introduction of “Shocking Pink,” a vibrant fuchsia that became her signature color
- Innovative use of synthetic fabrics and unconventional materials
- Surrealist-inspired designs merging art and fashion
- Pioneering the runway show concept and themed collections
The house closed in 1954 but experienced a dramatic revival in 2014 under Diego Della Valle’s ownership. Daniel Roseberry, appointed creative director in 2019, has reinvented Schiaparelli for the modern era while maintaining its surrealist DNA.
Elsa Schiaparelli was a revolutionary fashion designer who pushed the boundaries of conventional dress through her provocative and imaginative designs. What set her apart was her unique ability to work within traditional tailoring while incorporating subversive elements through prints, embroidery, embellishments, and unexpected materials. Her work challenged viewers to look twice, often incorporating bizarre and humorous interventions that transformed ordinary garments into extraordinary fashion statements.
Schiaparelli’s connection to the Surrealist movement proved particularly influential in her work. Through her friendships with artists in the Paris social scene, she engaged in numerous collaborative projects that spanned photography, accessories, perfume bottles, fabrics, and garments. Her partnerships with artists like Salvador Dalí, Jean Cocteau, and others helped her transcend the commercial aspects of fashion design. As she herself noted, working with these artists gave her “a sense of exhilaration” and made her feel “supported and understood beyond the crude and boring reality of merely making a dress to sell.”
Some of her most notable works emerged from these artistic collaborations. Her partnership with Dalí, which began in late 1936, produced iconic pieces like the shoe hat and the ‘Skeleton’ dress. The latter, a black crêpe sheath dress featuring a raised skeletal form in trapunto quilting, exemplified her innovative approach. Another striking example was the ‘Tear’ dress from her Summer 1938 collection, which featured a trompe l’oeil print of rips and tears that mimicked torn flesh. Her experimental nature extended to materials as well, as seen in her 1937 evening ensemble made entirely of plaited gilt braid, which transformed the wearer into a golden figure. Through these designs, Schiaparelli demonstrated how fashion could be elevated from mere clothing to artistic expression, blurring the lines between wearable garments and surrealist art.
Schiaparelli’s success in fashion was deeply intertwined with the Surrealist movement of the 1930s, which had begun to cross over from its radical avant-garde roots into the commercial world. According to influential Surrealist gallery owner Julien Levi, Schiaparelli was considered the only fashion designer to successfully interpret Surrealism in fashion. This was particularly significant because Surrealism offered unique opportunities to explore sexual symbolism and fetishization through fashion design, transforming everyday garments into powerful artistic statements.
Her collaborations with Surrealist artists, particularly Salvador Dalí, resulted in some of the most iconic pieces of 20th-century fashion. The 1938 ‘Shoe hat,’ featuring a pink velvet high-heel positioned on the head, exemplified the Surrealist concept of displacement – taking an object out of its expected context to create new meanings. This principle of transformation and recontextualization appeared throughout her work, from the skeletal quilting on her famous ‘Skeleton’ dress to the trompe l’oeil tears on her ‘Tear’ dress, both created in collaboration with Dalí. What made Schiaparelli’s work particularly remarkable was her ability to balance artistic innovation with wearability – her designs, while pushing boundaries, remained smart and functional garments.
In the broader context of Surrealism’s influence on commercial design, Schiaparelli’s work represented a crucial bridge between high art and everyday fashion. While some Surrealists initially opposed the movement’s intersection with commerce, Schiaparelli demonstrated how Surrealist principles could be successfully applied to create both artistically significant and commercially viable designs. Her work embodied Salvador Dalí’s vision of making “the fantastic real,” transforming everyday garments into objects that challenged perception and invited viewers to engage with fashion on a deeper, more conceptual level.
Elsa Schiaparelli’s journey into fashion design began during a period of solitude in Paris, where she felt constrained by the social limitations placed on women of her time. Despite having some artistic background in painting and sculpture, she stumbled into fashion design almost by accident. Her breakthrough came from a chance encounter with an American friend wearing an intriguingly different sweater, which led her to connect with Armenian knitters in Paris.
What’s particularly fascinating is that Schiaparelli herself couldn’t knit – she humorously compared any potential attempts to “a piece of Swiss cheese.” Yet this limitation didn’t stop her from creating her first revolutionary design: a black sweater with a white trompe l’oeil bow that she described as looking like “the primitive drawing of a child in prehistoric times.” The design’s simplicity and surreal twist captured the imagination of fashionable women, leading to her first major order of forty sweaters and skirts from a New York buyer.
The success of this initial design reveals much about both Schiaparelli’s creative vision and her entrepreneurial spirit. When faced with the daunting order, she rallied Paris’s Armenian community to help with production and found creative solutions for sourcing materials and creating matching skirts. This combination of artistic innovation and practical problem-solving would become hallmarks of her career, transforming her from a solitary woman seeking purpose in Paris to a influential fashion designer whose work would soon fill the Paris Ritz with women wearing her iconic black-and-white sweaters.
Contemporary Schiaparelli has gained prominence through:
- Dramatic red carpet moments, including Lady Gaga’s 2021 inauguration dress
- Viral runway shows featuring gold-plated anatomical accessories
- Haute couture collections combining traditional craftsmanship with bold, sculptural designs
- Celebrity endorsements from Beyoncé, Cardi B, and Bella Hadid
The brand operates exclusively in haute couture, maintaining Elsa’s commitment to artistic innovation and theatrical fashion. Its Paris atelier continues to create made-to-measure pieces that blend traditional techniques with contemporary surrealism.
Today’s Schiaparelli maintains its founder’s rebellious spirit while pushing fashion’s boundaries, proving that Elsa’s “difficult” nature continues to inspire fashion’s most provocative moments.
Till next time
Love X
Akansha
