Enjoy Ilsa'S Surrealist Masterpieces

When it comes to Elsa Schiaparelli, it's a little strange. But when it comes to wrap dress, built-in bra, zipper elements, newspaper printing, skirt pants Even today's rampant "co branding" model, we are no longer familiar with it.

These are all surreal ideas designed by Ilsa.

If Chanel is the right amount of elegant champagne in a fine goblet, Ilsa is half a bottle of spirits and vodka on hand.

Surrealism is a kind of surrealism. It attempts to break through the logical concept of reality and combine it with instinct, subconscious and dream to achieve surreal situation.

This aesthetic concept, which is not bound by rationality and morality, urges artists to express their original impulse and yearning for freedom with different methods.

In short, ideas that have never been heard of before are pioneers. Surrealism and Dadaism belong to avant-garde art.

Ilsa's design is just like this, she does not stick to the traditional fashion style, but creates a new way, has a set of humorous unique style. She made high-heeled shoes into hats, aspirin capsules into necklaces, and even sewed insects on the hats.

On Wednesday, the surreal works of the female designer "always underestimated by the fashion and art circles" were re exhibited at the Paris Museum of decorative arts, and Ilsa, who was named "the mother of strange fashion" by the New York Times, appeared again.

Today, let's talk about the ideas of Elsa Schiaparelli, a surrealist female designer.

When surrealism comes into fashion

Co branding between well-known brands is now common, but it was the first time at that time.

In her life, Ilsa's most co branded friend is her close friend Dali, the Surrealist master.

Jay Chou's new song "the greatest work" pays tribute to Dali's iconic work: the lobster phone.

In 1935, Dali designed a real phone with a fake lobster (it is said that he was inspired by the chance he saw someone throw leftover lobster shells on the phone).

In 1937, with Dali's help, Ilsa designed lobster as an element in her dress, which is still popular today.

In the same year, they cooperated again to design the famous shoes and hats.

The shoes and hats were inspired by a photo of Dali, who wore his wife's slippers on his head.

This seemingly ridiculous, but actually novel and bold attempt, let more people know Ilsa this surreal designer.

Another iconic collaboration is called "tears dress.".

This dress, as a souvenir of World War II, is Ilsa and Dali's response to the Spanish Civil War and the spread of fascism.

In addition, Ilsa and Dali also designed the skull dress.

To facilitate production, the garment uses a special quilting technique called Trapunto. The image of the victim is also speaking for the skeleton.

In addition to Dali, in 1937, Schiaparelli worked with French avant-garde poet Jean Cocteau to design an evening dress with two wrong vision holes and roses, which became her signature style.

Ilsa not only works with artists, but also works with baccarat, a world-famous perfume company, on a pink theme perfume.

As soon as this perfume was released, it became popular all over the world and became a trend of "shocking pink".

The bottle was designed by Leonor fini, inspired by the curves of actor Mae West.

In fact, this is just the tip of the iceberg that Ilsa combines women with fashion. Having seen Hermes orange and Tiffany blue, have you ever heard of Schiaparelli powder? This bright pink, which originated from B é rard, broke the atmosphere of depression and decadence at that time. Ilsa described the color as:

"Having your own life, like all the light, birds and fish in the world, is the color of China and Peru, not the color of the West." The woman in the pink dress designed by Ilsa must be the most dazzling one in the crowd. In the movie Moulin Rouge, Zsa Gabor wore a Schiaparelli pink dress, which was once a bit of an eye opener.  

This bold and feminine design was a separate part of that era. Daniel, a new designer of the brand Schiaparelli, has also followed Ilsa's surrealism style and designed a series of high-profile women's dresses with bright pink, such as the famous "muscle armor" below.   

However, the elements of Ilsa's fashion design are rich and varied. This beautiful female pink is just one of her masterpieces. In February 1938, Ilsa launched the "circus" series, including the "tear skirt" mentioned above. She boldly made the embroidered elephant on her clothes vivid.  

For the collection, Ilsa also specializes in a range of personalized buttons, special embroidery and prints, and orders many personalized pendants and brooches from French jeweler Jean Schlumberger (Jean is known for his work at Tiffany).   

All the elements full of vitality are presented under Ilsa's hand, and insect elements are also very common in her works.  

If you see here, you think of Gucci's logo.  

But Ilsa, the genius who created "exotic" pieces, has not been a smooth road for fashion designers.

"There's more than one road to the square"

I don't know if you still remember a text I read in primary school: "there is more than one road leading to the square".

When she came to the top of the tower, she took more than one road to the church.

And her dream is to be a fashion designer. After seeing her friend wearing a carefully knitted sweater, she had an inspiration - "suddenly, my eyes lit up, and a bold idea flashed into my mind: why don't I start with sweaters and design, make and sell fashion by myself?"

Starting with the design of black-and-white butterfly pattern sweater, she successfully held her own large-scale fashion show and was widely praised after overcoming many difficulties and constantly exploring new ways.

The author of this text is Elsa Schiaparelli, the competitor of Chanel, a famous Italian fashion designer in the 20th century.

"Black and white butterfly sweater" in the primary school text is Ilsa's first landmark work, and it is also the visual dislocation sweater, which helps her open the way of fashion designer.

Strauss of American department store ordered 40 pieces at a time, which made Ilsa enter Hollywood successfully. In a flash, Catherine Hepburn, Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo became her customers.

But before that, Ilsa's path as a designer was not smooth.

On September 10, 1890, Ilsa was born in a standard aristocratic family in Rome. His father, Celestino Schiaparelli, is a famous figure in the Italian academic circles, and his mother, Maria Luisa, is an Italian aristocrat. Other relatives also occupy a place in various fields. "Schiaparelli crater" in the movie "Mars rescue" was discovered by Ilsa's uncle.

But ten fingers do not touch the spring water of the good girl life, and can not circle the heart of her thoughts.

When she grew up, she went to the University of Rome to study philosophy and occasionally wrote poems in her spare time.

However, after reading her daughter's masterpiece, Ilsa's parents immediately decided to send her to a nunnery for "rehabilitation" -- in their eyes, the poems were too out of the ordinary to be written by a lady of great family.

Ilsa was not a submissive child. She was on a hunger strike in the monastery. Forced by her helplessness, her family had to take her home again.

At the age of 22, Ilsa heard that her family had arranged a blind date for her. This behavior let her completely quit, simply ran to London alone, and found a job as a nanny.

There, Ilsa spent a lot of spare time visiting museums and lectures. It was also a chance to listen to the lecture that she met her later husband, count William de winter de Keller.

In the strong opposition of her parents, Ilsa decided to marry the mysterious husband.

She never expected that this seemingly knowledgeable and polite man would fail to live up to her infatuation.

After marriage, they lived on Ilsa's savings. As a result, Elsa was expelled from England for cheating.

At a loss, Ilsa had to follow her husband to New York by boat.

On the ship to New York, Ilsa met the first noble person in her life, Gaby.

The two girls of the same age were like old friends at first sight, and they were very close to each other. Gaby also introduced her husband to Ilsa.

Gaby's husband, Francis Picabia, was a dada painter at the time, which brought Ilsa closer to the surreal world for the first time.

When they came to New York, Ilsa and her husband's life didn't get any better. On the contrary, after giving birth to their daughter, their life became more and more difficult. It was in this dilemma that William, who had talked at the lecture, left Ilsa and her daughter alone.

She decided to go to Paris with her daughter.

In 1922, Ilsa returned to Paris to help man ray produce his dada magazine, society é t é Anonyme. It was this job opportunity that Ilsa met her second important person, Paul poiret, a fashion designer and father of modern fashion.

At first, Paul invited Ilsa to work as a fashion model in her shop.

At that time, Paris was in the radical period after the first World War, and various kinds of art met and collided. After discovering Ilsa's talent, Paul offered to let her design her own fashion.

Encouraged by Paul, Ilsa started her own design and business. But before long, she had to close the studio because of her financial difficulties.

Having experienced the first failure, Ilsa began to re plan her own designer road. In 1927, she launched a new range of knitwear, using special double stitching and sweaters with surrealistic misreading images. She also appeared in vogue the same year. It was also at this time that the bow sweater appeared at the beginning of the article began to appear. The French version of vogue called it "sweater of the year.".

And then she did a series of pioneering designs:

It can be seen that the zipper is convenient for women to wear clothes;

Development of wrap around dresses to depict women's figure (later reviewed and perfected by American designer Diane von f ü rstenberg in the 1970s);

Put a bra pad in your swimsuit;

In women's wear, shoulder pads are used to set off women's more graceful figure by exaggeration of shoulders;

She also designed trouser skirts, which led to the birth of women's shorts. In 1931, female player lil í Á lvarez wore it, which caused a sensation in tennis.

Even better, the jacket element was used in Ilsa's evening dress collection. During the prohibition period in the United States, the jacket provided a hidden pocket for the wine bottle, which made the wine loving ladies ecstatic.

When Ilsa visited Amsterdam in 1935, she noticed that local women folded their hats with newspapers. Inspired, she designed the world's first newspaper print fashion.

With Ilsa's step-by-step success, schiap, which initially focused on sportswear, became an emerging fashion brand in the 1930s.

Because her designs are so popular around the world, Time magazine designed a cover for her in 1934, describing her as one of the pioneers of haute couture.

Ilsa was also the first female fashion designer to appear on the cover of time.

As a result, her fashion designer is on the right track.

In addition to vitality, Ilsa's works often use surrealism to voice for the women of that time.

In 1938, women's status was extremely low, and they were not respected very much. They were restricted and restricted everywhere.

Ilsa designed a lady's suit with mirrors to symbolize women's resistance.

Any man who points out to women will see his "ugly face" of disrespect for others from the woman wearing this suit coat.

Ilsa inspired and moved the women at that time in her own way.

The beauty of women has also been brought into full play by her. After seeing Picasso's works, she has a new inspiration.

Picasso's creation with the theme of hand painted hands

Ilsa designed gloves with "nails.". It's red on the suede, black on the suede.

And the claw gloves of the beast.

This kind of female design which consciously blurs human body and clothing belongs to Ilsa's romance.

Later, a surrealist artist named meret Oppenheim created many similar works inspired by Ilsa.

How could Elsa, who is so bold and avant-garde and attract the public's attention, not become a threat to Chanel?

In 1927, Ilsa's shop "schiap shop" opened at 21 wandom square.

At that time, Paris was in the stage of Chanel's dominance, and Ilsa's shop was next door to Chanel.

The popularity of Schiaparelli has opened a half century long competition between two fashion giants.

Chanel advocates simplicity and elegance, while Schiaparelli takes a unique and exaggerated style. The business competition between the two became more and more fierce. When the swords were at war, Chanel mocked Ilsa, who was just a "painter who can make clothes", and Ilsa also resented Chanel as a "hat merchant".

Soon, however, the Second World War began. Ilsa and Chanel closed their stores and left for refuge.

When they returned to Paris after the war, it was no longer their world. The rising new brands Christian Dior, Balenciaga and so on have quickly occupied the market.

Chanel relies on the tweed suit to reproduce Chanel's brilliance.

But Ilsa was not so lucky. She was very popular for a time, but after World War II, people's pursuit of simplicity and elegance gradually declined.

In 1954, Ilsa closed her 27 year old brand, Schiaparelli, and wrote an autobiography called shocking life.

It was not until 2019, when Schiaparelli replaced Daniel roseberry, the new design director, that the former king was back in sight.

In Daniel's first big show, Ilsa's signature color shocking pink was used.

After that, Schiaparelli made a comeback and became active in celebrities.

At the inauguration ceremony of US President Biden, Lady Gaga sang in Schiaparelli with a golden dove on her chest.

In the world of Europe and the United States.

There is no doubt that Schiaparelli is on the fashion stage again.

But Ilsa has no chance to see the glory of her own brand today. On November 13, 1973, Ilsa, 83, died in Paris.

But her strange and free style is remembered by people.

This unconventional and gifted surrealist female designer shows her unique humor and unremitting pursuit of freedom with her works.

As she said:

"There is only one perfect dress that will never go out of fashion, and that is the dress full of freedom."