July 7, 2014 |
You don’t often see whimsical haute couture these days. Fantastical, sure. Delicate, definitely. You see a few clangers too. But not someone whose fantasy skews freaky rather than chi-chi. That was sort of the hallmark of the house of Elsa Schiaparelli in her surreal thirties heyday – her clothes were provocative, sometimes even ugly. Ugliness is often new: Miuccia Prada said that, and that’s why she was teamed up with Schiap for the Met Costume Institute exhibition back in 2012. They’re kindred spirits.
Today, Elsa’s mantle is carried by Marco Zanini. Last season set the pace and the formula for his Schiap – a parade of disparate outfits, the single golden thread of connection being Schiaparelli’s legacy. This time, the silhouette – her boulder shoulder, evocative of Hollywood as well as haute couture – was a point of definition for playful twists on her signatures. Outfits were topped with Stephen Jones’ millinery – coloured, punkish fringes of feather or twists of crin and satin projecting like brush bristles at the apex of the head. There were riffs on her hand-drawn prints (Zanini makes a point of creating his prints in the traditional hand-blocked way, drafted in house, which he says is true couture), and spectacular reimaginings of her signature embroideries by Lesage and Hurel.
I say “reimagining” rather than “recreation” because this felt like Schiaparelli reactivated for the here-and-now. It helps that Schiap’s style was always modern – no corsetry, bombast or boning, just slithery dresses adorned with sequins which feel as relevant for couture clients and twenty-first century starlets as they did for Dietrich and the Duchess of Windsor back in the thirties. And the technique was dazzling – chiffon pom-poms, hand-made flowers, prints pricked with crystals of a beaded, bleeding heart pierced with golden arrows – a camp bit of Cocteau homage if I ever I saw it. The bouffant bridal gown that closed felt like Zanini’s nod to the Schiaparelli-loving Lacroix and his eighties extravagance. If Lacroix left a gaping void in the couture schedule, Zanini’s Schiaparelli is filling it with a welcome wit and whimsy.
By Alexander Fury
Alexander Fury is Fashion Editor of The Independent
