Fashion is an art. Art is fashion. And as I keep on exploring my passion for creative design and sustainability, I understand even more that these two can go hand-in-hand.
That’s why it wasn’t a big surprise when we visited this season’s NGV Triennial just to see the exclusive French couture house Maison Schiaparelli Exhibition, featuring the Maison’s exquisite designs including the famous Bella Hadid when she was wearing the breathtaking lung jewelry that made a huge storm on the internet.
A selection of eight dramatic and impeccably crafted garments designed by artistic director Daniel Roseberry, form the new display now open at the gallery in Melbourne. Drawn from recent couture collections, the works are displayed alongside a gleaming selection of Schiaparelli jewelry and accessories. Roseberry has served as artistic director for the fashion house, known for its head-tuning surrealist elements, since his debut collection for Schiaparelli in July 2019.
Created by avant-garde Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973) in 1927, the designer, and subsequently her label captured the world with a wild imagination and revolutionary approach to fashion.
Schiaparelli is best known for transforming ordinary objects into some of the most memorable fashion and accessory creations, like the famous “lobster dress” detailed by surrealist painter Salvador Dalí and her “shoe hat,” a hat in the shape of an upside-down high-heel.
The NGV Triennial presentation highlights Roseberry’s interest in pushing the boundaries of couture practice, his belief in fantasy, and his view that art and fashion can question, shape, and address the concerns of contemporary life. The works on display reflect the intersections between his contemporary vision for Maison Schiaparelli and the design codes and legacy of founder Elsa Schiaparelli.
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| Look 25, Nuage (cloud) dress from the Transformations autumn-winter 2019 collection |
Highlights include Look 25, Nuage (cloud) dress from the Transformations autumn-winter 2019 collection. Meters of billowing and ballooning fabric defy physics to create a cloud-like illusion. Aided by an internal hand-forged metal structure, the material hovers above the wearer before morphing and torquing the body to form a minidress. For Roseberry, the collection was an exploration of ‘volume and freedom and celebration of the body’.
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| Look 15 dress in shocking pink |
Look 15, dress, also on display, references founder Elsa Schiaparelli’s signature color – shocking pink – which she adopted in 1937. The work also pays homage to Schiaparelli’s embrace of the uncanny and surreal, with meters and meters of fabric seemingly suspended from large hoop earrings.
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| Minidress from Matador Collection Autumn-Winter 2021-22 |
Look 6, Minidress and hat from The Matador collection, autumn-winter 2021–22, is a direct homage to an Art Deco evening coat from Autumn 1937 made by Elsa Schiaparelli. The original work features a double image on the back: one of two faces in profile, the other of a vase of roses. Executed in shell-pink silk applique, the roses are multiplied, extending across the upper bodice and cascading down the sleeves. To achieve this, Roseberry worked with long-standing French embroidery house Lesage, who made the original 1937 version.
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| Look 4 Jacket from the Matador Collection Autumn-Winter 2021-22, made of recycled denim, leather, resin, brass, metallic thread, glass beads, and rhinestones. |
This jacket is made from vintage denim jeans, an unconventional fabric for couture, and typifies Roseberry’s intention to up-end unspoken fashion rules. Paying tribute to Elsa Schiaparelli’s heavily embellished and embroidered structured jackets of the late 1930s and 1940s, and her love of surrealist tropes, this work features three-dimensional anatomical elements in gold-colored resin, padded lambskin, and beading.
The garments are presented alongside a gilded selection of costume jewelry and accessories, including the recognizable Bust bag from spring-summer 2021, with its molded leather torso, as well as Roseberry’s anatomical eyeglasses, finger pieces, earrings, and breastplates.
Schiaparelli Displays are available at NGV Triennial 2023 from today until 7 April 2024 at NGV International, Melbourne. Entry is free.
Check out other For Urban Women’s fashion and art exhibition posts here.
This is fashion! I am familiar with the designer from watching drag race. Now i understand the references!!
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