Haute Couture
Spring/Summer 2016
“A Gala Dinner or the Pleasures of Taste
“Eating is not just a material pleasure. Eating well gives life a
spectacular joy, contributes enormously to the goodwill of men and
the happy agreement. Morally, it’s very important. ”
Elsa Schiaparelli, Shocking Life, 1954Instilling the extraordinary into the ordinary is the very essence of Haute Couture. The story of a table set for a feast inspires a collection touched by grace. Each dish is transformed into an opulent delicacy. The osmosis of beauty and goodness is matched only by the munificence of silhouettes that awaken the senses. The exquisite can be touched with the eyes. Gourmet delights tantalize the taste buds: yesterday, in the basement of Elsa Schiaparelli’s private mansion, transformed into a trattoria for diners among friends, and today, when such a trivial moment in the art of living can strangely become an act of resistance.Elsa, Louise & Gala’s cuisine is alchemical. Art delights in the art of the table. Louise Bourgeois gave life to galley textiles. The stripe of a 19th-century tea towel now weaves its web into a structured jacket with spider-like graphics. Gala Dali’s recipes inspired her husband to create surreal compositions. Fruits, vegetables and lobsters are combined in motifs that play with relief, shape and color.
The verticality of the Schiaparelli style is renewed by a lightness imbued with transparency. Shocking pink cigaline evaporates in organ pipes and sunburst pleats. A breath of hemp fringe echoes linen braids. The sensuality of natural materials caressing the skin does not hide an underlying tension that is typical of Schiaparelli allure. Gold-leafed porcelain embroidery is set in silk crochet. Know-how and sensitivity combine in rare elaborations. Applications and inlays of multicolored plunged lambskin blend into a festive table scene. A biker jacket crystallizes a sun of wheat ears and raffia, revealing a painting of organic poetry.
Jewelry is like reinvented appetizers: hearts pierced with shrimp, winged padlocks overhung by an eggshell or iris elixir. Salomés with 3D-printed gourmet pea heels deconstruct a face on the toe. The wicker picnic basket metamorphoses into a Stamp minaudière , freed from Elsa’s enamel profile like an invitation to a Gala dinner…
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