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Schiaparelli Haute Couture SS16 in Paris

Schiaparelli Haute Couture SS16 in Paris January 29, 2016Fashion Week, Haute Couture, Paris0 Comments

SCHIAPARELLI Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2016

“A Gala dinner…

or the pleasures of tasting”

The very essence of Haute Couture is about creating the extraordinary out of the ordinary.

The idea of a table laid out for a feast gives life to a collection full of grace…

Each course in transcended bz delicate opulence. Beauty and good taste merge to match exquisite silhouettes awakening the senses. The delectable can only be touched with the eyes. Indulgence challenges one’s taste. Yesterday the basement of Elsa Schiaparelli’s hôtel particulier was made into a trattoria to host intimate dinners, and today enjoying the great meal with friends may strangely become an act of resilience.

“Eating is not merely a material pleasure. Eating well gives a spectacular joy of life and contributes immensely to goodwill and happy companionship. It is of great importance to the morale.”

Elsa Schiaparelli, Shocking Life, 1954

Elsa, Louisa & Gala are like alchemists’ cooks. Art plays with the artistry and joy of feasting. Louise Bourgeois manipulated kitchen textiles for her works with fabrics. Today stripes of 19th century tea towels spin a cobweb on a structured jacket. Gala Dali’s recipes were a true source of inspiration for her husband’s surrealistic compositions. Now fruits, vegetables and lobsters are mixed into motifs taking on their textures, shapes and colours.

Lightness and transparency renew the verticality of the Schiaparelli style. Shocking pink silk cigaline stretches in cartridge pleating and plissé soleil. A breeze of hemp fringes echoes raw linen braiding. The sensuality of natural materials caressing the skin uncovers the underlying tension typical of the Schiaparelli allure. Gold-painted porcelain embroidery is crocheted in silk yarns. Savoir-faire and sensibility meld in rare concoctions. Multi-coloured nappa leather is appliquéd and inserted to reveal a lavish dinner table. A biker jacket shows a poetic sun in shapts of wheat and raffia.

Jewelry is reinvented as an amuse-bouche: hearts pierced with shrimp, winged padlocks mounted with broken eggshells or iris’ elixir. T-bar pumps with 3D printed peas-in-a-pod heels feature a deconstructed face on the front. A wicker picnic basket is transformed into a Stamp clutch stamped with Elsa’s profile in enamel becoming a real Gala dinner invitation…