Shocking – The Art & Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli: The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli - Hardcover

Blum, Dilys E

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300100663 ISBN 13: 9780300100662

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2003

Synopsis

Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973) was the premier style arbiter of the 1930s - a favourite designer for women who made the best-dressed list, of female sports heroes, and of film and theatre actresses. This book takes a comprehensive look at the work of this startling and innovative Paris fashion designer. "Shocking!" explores the Italian-born designer's career from its modernist beginnings in the 1920s to the closing of her salon in 1954. Author Dilys Blum discusses in detail Schiaparelli's impact on and relationship with the American fashion industry, the foundation of her great success. She also addresses how Schiaparelli's early designs were acclaimed for the architectural quality of her silhouettes and her use of unconventional materials. After 1935 the designer's collections took on a new identity, partly from her close relationship with the Parisian artistic community, which included Man Ray, Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau, and Alberto Giacometti. Illustrated with over 300 captivating reproductions of Schiaparelli clothing and accessories, this book also includes contemporary photos of her designs by such key fashion photographers as Horst and Cecil Beaton and sketches and stills from the films and plays with which she was associated. Together the text and illustrations celebrate a masterful designer who defined dressmaking as an art rather than a profession.

About this title

Review:

'...not since Westwood and McLaren....has modern fashion known an edge and elegance....to compare with Schiaparelli's -- Independant on Sunday, August 29 2004

‘Elsa Schiaparelli invented shocking-pink, turned rayon into couture and clad Wallis Simpson in lobsters...the most daring designer of the time'. -- Vicki Woods, Sunday Telegraph Magazine, 19 October 2003

About the Author:

Dilys E. Blum is the Curator of Costume and Textiles at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0300100663
• ISBN 13: 9780300100662
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 312