Schiaparelli Fall 2014 Couture
Tinsel, arrows shot through hearts and floral appliqué in the strangest places: Schiaparelli is back with style. The brand was re-established in Paris a few seasons ago under the Tod’s group and showed a collection by Christian Lacroix at the Musée des Arts Decoratifs. The collection included some of Schiaparelli’s most popular codes: the lobster, the jumpsuit, bright magenta, trompe l’oeil, the idea of monkeys (in hairy-looking trim). There was a spirit of clever, sophisticated wit.
In the Fall/Winter 2014 collection, designer Marco Zanini, who was appointed “Schiap” creative director in 2013, takes the original designer’s whimsy and isn’t afraid to use it. It is, in one word, fun.
The collection includes a jacket made of tinsel, created by François Lesage, a pleated green skirt with blue print, arrows through hearts and prints of purple rats on a dress: if not all larger-than-life (like the tinsel), some chuckle-inducing. Playing with insects and tufts of texture – done by Zanini in sudden bursts of floral appliqués or in monkey-fur-inspired boleros, for example – were also signatures of Elsa Schiaparelli, sometimes done in collaboration with her Surrealist artist friends. Symbolism and the mocking thereof, (again, Surrealist tropes) are seen in several ensembles such as the bridal gown at the finale. It is printed with pigeons, those commemorative wedding birds. Hats were by Stephen Jones Millinery and matched the House’s inspirateion from nature, spirit of transformation and #LOL wit. There was one that looked like the celebration-tooter emoji (as if emoji could get any more pervasive). More understated pieces for clients who like less frou-frou included crocodile leather skirts treated to be cut like soft textile, seemingly cut on the bias, the signature tuxedo suit ensemble, which the House reinterprets every season, and a black dress with a black crochet “coaster” capping the breasts.
There was also a retro feeling in the deep jewel-coloured hues, rusty browns, and flat pointy-toed zipped boots. The boots, and the collection’s round sunglasses, felt both about bygone decades (most recently the 1960s and the 1970s) and the now: the “full circle” in design sparked the question of fashion and inspiration, its adaptation from history that evolves to become a trend. Finally, a collection like this, more easily labelled “artistic” by its virtue of pushing into more outrageous fashion ground, is inevitably something new, as Schiaparelli back then was.
See the whole Schiaparelli A/W 14 collection below
Text by Ria de Borja