Freed from a 60-year slumber and a first season driven by the eclectic personality of Elsa Schiaparelli, the House of Schiaparelli now embraces a heritage as rich as it is plural. This season reveals an audacious, non-conformist and flamboyant collection in keeping with Elsa’s dazzling spirit. Marco Zanini exacerbates his mastery of excess, fusing Haute Couture savoir-faire with absolute chic.
Exalted femininity and sophisticated elegance are a real surprise. Confident, the Schiaparelli woman dares and proudly assumes her fantasy. Her presence is an affirmation of a resolutely Parisian allure. Her strong personality is expressed in intense Hollywood Kodachrome colors, cheeky prints, sparkling embroidery, architectural tailoring and glamorous blurring. The vertical silhouette features a clepsydra waist and pronounced shoulder line.
Oscillating between femme fatale and hard chic, each piece is an enchantment of artisanal prowess. The black ostrich feathers of a bolero are glycerinated to resemble monkey fur. Combining the beautiful and the common, the very essence of Schiaparelli style, the preciousness of alligator (shaped by hand like muslin) contrasts with multicolored lamé synthetic bangs. Long dresses alternate black velvet panne in Balade nocturne jacquard (sketching city rats) and shocking pink silk velvet – the only shade of pink as vibrant as red.
The cheerfully offbeat prints of city animals are hand-painted and then developed using traditional frame or warp printing techniques: Dans les ombres du jardin (moths on ivy leaves), Les Amis d’Elsa (fox terriers, boxers and poodles), Central Park (squirrels and rats) and Les pigeons de Notre-Dame (pigeons taking flight).
Jewelry in the shape of ivy leaves, moths and hearts pierced by arrows evoke motifs dear to Elsa’s heart. In glass paste, crystal, brass and copper, they echo the handcrafted jewelry buttons. The nonchalant opulence of the passages is brought to its peak with the Suite N.7 evening bag in alpaca, breitschwanz or harlequin mink, adorned with a padlock inspired by a 1938 Schiaparelli embroidery.
All images from the fashion show :
