Astronomers today celebrate the 174° birth anniversary of Giovanni Schiaparelli and, since my personal style icon Elsa was his great-niece, I want to dedicate a brief post also to him before catching up with more stuff from the Paris catwalks.
Giovanni Schiaparelli was born on 14th March 1835. He was one of the main experts in the field of ancient astronomy, but was more famous for his studies on meteor showers and double stars, that is a pair of stars that appear close to each other in the sky as seen from Earth when viewed through an optical telescope.
His name is mainly linked, though, with his work about planet Mars. Schiaparelli wrote indeed three essays on the topic, "Il pianeta Marte" (Planet Mars, 1893 and 1909) and "La vita sul pianeta Marte" (Life on Planet Mars, 1895). He also studied the structures on the surface of the planet that he later on called "channels". “Rather than proper channels," the astronomer wrote in an article published in May 1835, "we must imagine them as being ground depressions which aren't too deep, but extend like lines for thousands of kilometres (…) since on Mars it doesn’t rain, these channels are probably the main way water (and organic life) spreads on the dry surface of the planet.”
Mars channels sparkled various hypotheses and debates about life on the planet, until the first photographs taken by the Mariner 4 space probe in 1965 and the first proper map made by the Mariner 9 probe in 1971 revealed the surface of the planet was dry and featured many craters.
The asteroid 4062 Schiaparelli, the Schiaparelli crater on the Moon, the eponymous crater on Mars and the Schiaparelli Dorsum on planet Mercury, were all called after the Italian astronomer. Giovanni Schiaparelli died on 4th July 1910 and was buried in Milan's Monumental Cemetery.
Giovanni Schiaparelli was considered by his fellow astronomers as a pioneer, so I want to celebrate him today with a couple of pictures from a collection by his great-niece Elsa, a pioneer herself in the world of fashion (by the way, there is a new Schiap site available, check it out here).
In August 1938 Schiap launched her “Cosmique” collection (A/W 1938-39). The collection was indeed inspired by astronomy and featured embroidered zodiac signs and stars, a sequinned sun on a shocking pink cape (very aptly called the "Phoebus" cape), the fountain of Apollo in Versailles, images taken from the glass-stained windows of Gothic cathedrals and angels.
One of my favourite pieces is a blue silk velvet jacket with metallic embroideries representing the Ursa Major and Ursa Minor constellations, Saturn, the Moon, a few comets and the zodiac signs embroidered in gold and framed in squares made with silver thread and crystals. Happy cosmic birthday to Giovanni Schiaparelli then!
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