Vogue on Designers

Shocking, witty and eccentric, the designs of Elsa Schiaparelli are among the most innovative and influential in the history of fashion. Black gloves with golden fingernails, buttons shaped like lips, trompe l'oeil images, brightly coloured zips and perfume bottles in the shape of a torso would not be out of place in fashion today, but they were created by Schiaparelli in the 1930s. A true original, she collaborated with artists such as Salvador Dali and Man Ray, pioneered the runway show and designed costumes for film-stars from Mae West to Marlene Dietrich. She used film and stage as a publicity vehicle for her label, and her advertising graphics were far ahead of their time. Through the photographs and illustrations of Vogue that championed Schiaparelli from the first picture of her revolutionary Bow-knot sweater in 1927 to the Surrealist Tears dress and Shoe hat of the late 1930s, Elsa Schiaparelli presents the enduring legacy of this daring and visionary