"Shocking ! Les Mondes Surréalistes d’Elsa Schiaparelli”
The Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris has a show running through January 2023 looking at Schiaparelli and surrealist art which surrounded and sometimes inspired her. Of course, she also made less novel designs, but these are what she is best known for. Even if you find the trompe l’oiel, or fool-the-eye efforts a little silly in a garment, you can surely appreciate the fine work of the couture workers who created them.
This show bring together more than 500 works with over 200 looks, garments, and accessories by Schiaparelli and the rest of the objects include paintings, sculptures, jewelry, ceramics, and photographs by by contemporaries like Man Ray, Salvador Dalí, and Jean Cocteau.
You will need tickets to attend the show. For more info, go here: https://madparis.fr/Shocking-Les-mondes-surrealistes-d-Elsa-Schiaparelli
The Dramatic Shirtwaist at the Grand Rapids Public Museum
I usually think of shirtwaist as puffy, printed, light-colored cotton garment like the one worn by my great grandmother, but of course, a shirtwaist, or blouse could come in any color.This one is part of the Fashion and Nature exhibition at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, part of the section on cotton and shirtwaists.
As you can see, it is an over-the-top design of excessive details and embellishments. The sheer black fabric is pleated down the sleeves, and each pleat is marked by a red velvet ball. The blacks backed with white, and lace trims the cuffs. Then lace collar has a red band outlining it as well as a red ribbon at the top of its high neckline and red bows to shut its surplice front. Don’t forget the red balls and bands at the shoulders. You can see why It reminded me of Elizabeth Phelps, the dress reformer who complained in 1873 that women’s fashion had become “a meaningless dazzle of broken effects.” This blouse dates to the early 20th Century, but the eye finds no rest as it travels up and down and across. No wonder the Dress Doctors kept harping on simplicity. Their eyes had been exhausted.
For more on this exhibition, go here: https://www.grpm.org/fashion-and-nature/
A BRAND NEW, never-before-seen dress belonging to one of the Grand Duchesses has been discovered by the Hermitage Museum and exhibited for the first time.
It has not yet been identified who the pink and red dress belongs to. The sisters used to have their first name and patronymics stitched into the waist of their dresses in order to differentiate between them. Similarly, the dress maker is not yet known, though it is highly likely that it was produced in the workshops of either Olga Bubenkova or August Brizak, two of the Romanov family’s favourite designers.
The dress, alongside many other pieces of clothing and personal items, can be seen at the Hermitage Museum’s new exhibit, ‘OTMA & Alexei’.
Sources and photos: Дети последнего российского императора. Выбор куратора, Hermitage Museum, RomanovsOneLastDance