Jenny Palmer x Sparkle Style: Schiaparelli and Prada: 'Impossible Conversations' The Costume Institute Exhibition at the MOMA NYC! Xx

So the Annual Costume Institute Exhibition
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
is to Open on May 10 and it runs until Aug 19

This year it is Schiaparelli and Prada
'Impossible Conversations'
The show's idea and name was inspired by
Vanity Fair's 1930s series of unimaginable exchanges
which was also called 'Impossible Conversations'

Anna Wintour, the Editor in Chief of American Vogue is to

Host the incredible Gala Benefit that launches the show

on 7 May at the Met,

And we cannot wait to see what everyone is wearing.

Anna says in her

letter from the editor 'Fearless and Peerless' in the May Issue that
the Gala
'has always had the touch of the improbable about it'
and this year she adds will be no different as
'Impossible Conversations' involves the
'Visions of two extraordinarily creative women ... Elsa and Miuccia' who
'Walk common ground, particularly
when it comes to challenging notions and assumptions around class,
sexuality, status, power and beauty'.

Since 2005 Coco Chanel The Costume Institute
hasn't covered female designers,

when the Fashion World is populated by

majorly talented women:

Sarah Burton Alexander McQueen
Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte
Phoebe Philo of Celine
Donna Karan
Stella McCartney
Frida Gianni of Gucci
Diane von Furstenberg
Vivienne Westwood
Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen of the Row

Anna Wintour at the Chanel Gala 2005

Scarlett Johansson on the cover of May US Vogue
in a Prada silk plisse dress from the fall 2004 collection
Van Cleef and Arpels diamond and pearl earrings.

Photographed by Mario Testino

Fashion Editor Tonne Goodman

Hair Oribe

Make-Up James Kaliardos for Dolce and Gabbana

In this issue, Camilla Nickerson and David Sims with
Stella Tennant have worked together on the shoot

'Shock Value'

Hair by Garren and Make-Up Diane Kendal

Jacket Junya Watanabe Comme des Garcons

Giambattista Valli Haute Couture hydrangea print silk dress

Satin T Shirt Stella McCartney, Pyjama pant Olivier Rousteing

Oscar de la Renta dress with lace trim and turtleneck cape.

Nina Ricci net gloves

(images courtesy US Vogue
for promotional purposes only and not meant to infringe copyright)

The shoot pays homage to

Schiaperelli's shocking pink shade that she loved

and introduced to an unsuspecting Paris.

As Yves Saint Laurent, her protege and colleague famously described it

"the nerve of red...an aggressive, brawling, warrior pink."
and how she

"didn't want to please; she wanted to dominate".

"She slapped Paris. She smacked it. She tortured it. She bewitched it.
And it fell madly love with her."

Harold Koda is curator in charge of the exhibition, and Andrew Bolton the co-curator.
The Installation is designed by Nathan Crawley
and has a series of Baz Luhrmann videos with the impossible conversations.
Schiaparelli is played by Judy Davis,
the star of "My Brilliant Career" and "Husbands and Wives"

These are a couple of the exchanges:

Schiap: I enjoy creating for the woman who no matter what her years,
wears my clothes with the poise of youth"

Prada: I hate the idea that you shouldn't wear something
just because youre a certain age

Prada: ...I try to make women feel more powerful without losing their femininity....

Schiaparelli: Many men admire strong women, but they do not love them....

Check HERE
to watch one of the Baz Luhrmann Interviews
on the Met website

Prada and Schiap obviously have similarities but Miuccia says:
"These are two such different time periods that, honestly,
I see more differences than similarities," said Prada.
"It is their project and their exhibition, so I am very little involved.
But the differences are also so important. I hope that will come out."

Scarlett Johansson in Prada Photographed by Mario Testino

Fashion Editor Tonne Goodman

Hair Oribe

Make-Up James Kaliardos for Dolce and Gabbana

and below with Mark Ruffalo

in a tribute to the Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant film Bringing up Baby

in which Katherine wore Schiaperelli.

Nina Ricci pale-pink silk dress Christian Louboutin Heels

Mark in Brooks Brothers, Scarlett in Vionnet

(images courtesy US Vogue
for promotional purposes only and not meant to infringe copyright)

Katherine Hepburn in Bringing up Baby

Schiaperelli also dressed Katherine Hepburn for

Philadephia Story see below

Katherine Hepburn who famously and wisely said

"If you want to give up the admiration of

thousands of men for the disdain of one, go ahead and get married"

Schiaperelli probably agreed with her - we know that Chanel did! Xx

Elsa Schiaperelli - a Brief History

Time Cover 1934

Elsa Schiaparelli 1890 - 1973 was born in Rome

She was Rebellious and left home to work as a Nanny in London.
On a trip to Paris she met Count William de Wendt de Kerlor,
a Breton-Swiss theosophist, and married him.
In 1921 the couple moved to New York,
where she worked as a film scriptwriter and translator
and sold French dresses to wealthy American friends.

Her husband had an affair with Isadora Duncan,
and he left Schiaperelli soon after the birth of their daughter
Maria Luisa Yvonne Radha, known as Gogo.
(Gogo's daughter is actress Marisa Berenson)
In New York Schiaperelli met up with Marcel Duchamp,
Man Ray and Francis and Gaby Picabia,
also Christian Berand, Alberto Giacometti,
Meret Oppenheim and the Photographer Alfred Steiglitz.

She went with the Picabias to Paris with her daughter Gogo in 1922
- she said "Poverty forced me to work, and Paris gave me a liking for it."
In 1927 she became a French Citizen,

showed a collection of knitwear
and opened her first 'maison' at no 4 Rue de la Paix

Her first collection followed in 1929.

In 1935 she moved to Place Vendome

Check my Post

http://www.sparklestyle.co.uk/2012/04/april-us-vogue-and-ritz-paris-place.html
where she

introduced the modern idea of fashion shows.

She is credited with the first wrap dress, ready to wear boutique and zips in Couture.
Schiap was influenced by the surrealists and dadaists and
her designs included an orange tweed mini skirt with black shiny bugs on, and

a black suit from 1938 with candy pink collar with metal insects.
She collaborated with Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau.

Chanel, her great rival, called her: "that Italian artist who makes clothes".

She was a great business woman and had 12 commandments which included:

- Since most women do not know themselves
they should try to do so.

- Remember that 20% of women have
inferiority complexes and 70 % have illusions
(leaving 10% who are just right!!).

- Never shop with another woman who
sometimes consciously or unconsciously is apt to be jealous.

-She should always pay her own bills.

Shocking pink was fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli’s
signature color and she described it as

“life-giving, like all the light and the birds and the fish in the world put together, a color of China and Peru but not of the West.”

Some say the inspiration and love for the shocking pink shade came from
her client and friend in Paris, Daisy Fellowes
who owned a stunning 17.27ct pink diamond ring
(bought at Cartier‘s shop at 13 rue de la Paix)

This is a Tourmaline and Diamond Ring Bulgari
but I guess it looked something like this

Heiress Daisy Fellowes (who was also the

editor in chief of French Harper’s Bazaar), like Shiap's other client
Wallis Simpson was very fond of serious

and very beautiful jewellery see below in her Cartier Tutti Frutti Necklace of 1936
apparently Wallis had one made just like it!

Cartier Tutti Frutti Necklace of 1936

Daisy Fellowes

Schiaparelli also dressed Wallis Simpson - The Duchess of Windsor.

Above: Pictures by Cecil Beaton from an 8 page spread in Vogue featuring

Wallis Simpson wearing the Lobster Dress (below)

Elsa Schiaparelli Lobster Dress Dali (Summer/Fall 1937)

Design collaboration between Schiaparelli and Salvador Dali.

Silk Designer Sache, translated Dali's sketch to the fabric.

Salvador Dali's Lobster Phone

Elsa dressed Marlene Dietrich

and Mae West

for her personal wardrobe, and
for the movie "Every Day's a Holiday" in 1937:

Salvador Dali's Face of Mae West 1935

Dalí created The Mae West Lips Sofa (1937)
in the same shocking-pink color introduced by Elsa Schiaparelli.
See the sofa at the Sanderson in my Post
http://www.sparklestyle.co.uk/2011/11/ian-schragers-st-martins-lane-sanderson.html

Salvador Dalí

Schiap also dressed Zsa Zsa Gabor for "Moulin Rouge" in 1952:

Marcel Vertes and Elsa Schiaparelli jointly won the British Academy Film award
in 1952 for Best Costume Design for the original Moulin Rouge film,
about the life and times of artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Her business closed in 1954 following second world war.

Shocking Schiaperelli

(cover photo by george hoyningen huene 1932)

"Shocking, the Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli"

The Book that went with the special Exhibition
at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2003

Click to BUY from Amazon

Schiaperelli Quotes

"Women dress alike all over the world: they dress to annoy other women."

"Fashion is born by small facts, trends, or even politics, never by
trying to make little pleats and furbelows, by trinkets,
by clothes easy to copy, or by the shortening or lengthening of a skirt."

"In difficult times fashion is always outrageous."

She wrote her memoirs which were published in 1954: Shocking Life.

Schiaparelli Pink

Black and Pink Stripe Silk Dress

Lipstick and Nail Varnish in Schiaparelli Pink

by NARS

The Schiaparelli Suite at the St Martins Lane Hotel

see my Post

http://www.sparklestyle.co.uk/2011/11/ian-schragers-st-martins-lane-sanderson.html

Gigi Chair in Schiaparelli Pink from livchic.com

Organdy Butterfly Dress 1937

Pink Stripe Boots by Andre Perugia for Schiaparelli

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Dinner jacket, spring 1947, Black crepe and pink silk taffeta
with paillette and seed-pearl embroidery and jet buttons

Jacket, 1938, Silk twill, fastened with cast metal buttons in the shape of mermaids.

From her pink and blue, circus themed line.

Pink Moire Silk Dress

Hat fall winter 1937-8 collection

The heel is of a shocking-pink color. This hat was worn by

Singer sewing machine heiress Daisy Fellowes, among others.

Evening Dress, 1952, Organza, with cotton machine embroidery
and velvet appliqué, and under-dress of Thai silk.
Ms. Schiaparelli was supposedly
buried in a very old Chinese silk robe of shocking pink.