I was recently reminded of a friend’s fascinating hat collection, which then led me to think about the surrealist designs by Elsa Schiaparelli who was very influential from the late 1920s through the 1940s. Her hat, fashion, and accessory designs are heavily featured in every major fashion museum collection. But though they’re taken seriously these days, the artist considered her weirdest designs to be “little jokes.” She was, in fact, the first designer to be known for her sense of humor and wild imagination. Her main rival, Coco Chanel, used to refer to her as “that Italian artist who makes clothes.”
Schiaparelli was in fact very involved in the surrealist and dadaism art scenes, and collaborated with famous artist of the time including Salvador Dali (with whom she designed her famous shoe hat above).
The modern Maison Schiaparelli continues the designer’s challenging and often bizarre tradition of haute couture with some of the most unexpected but still beautiful pieces I’ve ever seen.
You can follow Maison Schiaparelli on their website and on Instagram and YouTube.
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My OBT 
July 14, 2023 at 7:05 am
I saw an exhibition about her in Paris. It was fabulous. https://viewfromtheback.com/2022/11/15/trip-to-musee-decorative-arts/
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July 14, 2023 at 9:19 am
It must have been! Such a wizard at combining art and fashion.
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July 14, 2023 at 9:54 am
Absolutely Donna
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July 14, 2023 at 10:21 am
You’re not even a costume designer if you don’t, at one or many points, reference Schiaparelli. She was a goddess.
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July 14, 2023 at 10:36 pm
She was our costume queen!
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