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ELSA SCIAPARELLI AT THE MET
Italian designer Elsa Sciaparelli is what one would consider fashions elite, you know , the ones who, " shook hands with Sinatra" figuratively speaking. In fact the people she would have shaken hands with would be Coco Chanel, her greatest rival, and Christian Dior. Born in 1890, Schiaparelli's abstract designs took off around the 1930's. In many ways, her creations were ahead of her time, she took her inspirations were from surrealists- even collaborating with Salvador Dali.
She lived in a time of significant change in the world, politically and socially. Women were beginning to seek a voice and the world was at war. This climate undoubtedly contributed to difficulties of her business continuing... She had a specific identity and direction, her clothes were art, and in a time of rations, practicality and women at war perhaps her greatest rival was her integrity to her trade. She did not change with the demands of the climate and so her quality became a limitation- she lived in a world not quite ready to fully embrace the work of this great surrealist fashion visionary. She died in 1973. The Met has chosen to pay homage to this magnificent maverick, along side Prada. The exhibition features a section of imagined conversation between Schiaparelli & Prada's Miucca.
A quote is,"One must feel the trends of history and precede"
-her work- on show in exhibition, looks right at home in this futuristic generation.
