The announced Schiaparelli-Prada exhibition at the Met has by now caused so many people to jump on the Schiap bandwagon that this train – that has mainly been populated in the last decade by a few dedicated fans, researchers and copycat designers – is now overcrowded.
Yet, before jumping off, I have decided that, rather than proclaiming my excitement for an exhibition that more or less will end up juxtaposing the original and the copy (despite talking about connections, links, homages and tribute, putting some Schiap’s designs next to Prada’s only ends up emphasising the strong derivation of the latter from the former...baroque curlicues included) or joining the designer lottery guessing if Galliano will be heading to Schiaparelli's house, now owned by Diego Della Valle (and put further bets on where other "orphans" such as Raf Simons and Stefano Pilati will end up now...by the way, what about sending Simons to Schiap since he came up with quite beautiful pink shades in his A/W 2012-13 collection for Jil Sander?), I have decided that between now and May I will be looking at films in which Schiap’s designs appeared.
From what we gathered so far, from what was published on the Met's Costume Institute dedicated site for the exhibition and from the preview during Milan Fashion Week, the “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations” event, kicking off with the Gala Benefit on 7th May, will be divided into different themes - Waist Up/Waist Down, Ugly Chic, Naïf Chic, The Classical Body, The Exotic Body and The Surreal Body.
The event will have a connection with cinema since Baz Luhrmann will be the Exhibition Creative Consultant and the creator, with Nathan Crowley and Raul Avila, of the 2012 Costume Institute Gala Benefit design. But apparently there won't be any further connections between films, Schiap and Prada (though, unfortunately, we will be have to endure deranged comparisons between Schiaparelli’s collaborations with Dalí and Cocteau and Prada’s connections with - ahem - contemporary artists such as insufferable Vezzoli).
Schiaparelli started working for the movie industry in the ‘30s with Maurice Elvey’s The Tunnel. Shot in 1952, Moulin Rouge was the last film in which her designs appeared. One of Schiap's stronger links with cinema remains the connection with Mae West whose torso also inspired the bottle for the designer's fragrance.
I looked at The Tunnel in a previous post, so, for today, let’s move to Paris to have a look at Moulin Rouge. For its plot and moods, the film is actually quite different from Luhrmann’s movie with the same title.
Directed by American John Huston, Moulin Rouge was the screen adaptation of the eponymous novel about painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, written by Pierre La Mure.
The film was shot in Paris, with Huston directing and producing it. Paul Sheriff worked on the sets, while high fashion artist Marcel Vertès worked on the décor and the costumes (in the ‘30s he became well known for his illustrations for many fashion designers, including Elsa Schiaparelli) and Schiaparelli designed Zsa Zsa Gabor’s costumes.
The main palette for the film was originally inspired by Lautrec’s shades, but, since fog filters were applied on the camera and gelatin filters were placed in front of the lights, the final effect obtained ended up evoking the works of the impressionist painters.
The film opens in 1890 inside the Moulin Rouge, a brightly-lit music hall where dancers and singers - including La Goulue constantly fighting with a rival dancer, Valentin also known as “the boneless wonder”, and singing star Jane Avril (Zsa Zsa Gabor) - perform their acts.
The film more or less gives life to the characters featured in Lautrec’s drawings and posters (all Lautrec’s sketches in the film were actually made by Vertès), even Gabor's costumes, often in bright and vivid shades, were based upon Toulouse-Lautrec's portraits of Avril.
Avril/Gabor first appears in a white shirt, orange skirt with a yellow hem and white hat with an orange feather, an attire that calls to mind Lautrec’s 1893 poster of Avril at the Jardin de Paris.
In another shot she wears a bright red dress with a (very Schiaparelli) shocking pink tulle bow, while when Lautrec accompanies her to get a new costume from fashion designer Paquin, she is dressed in a black gown and black hat with a yellow ostrich feather boa reminiscent of the dress and the colour palette in Lautrec's poster for the Paris club and concert venue Divan Japonais.
Avril buys from Paquin a red and black costume with a sequinned snake winding around the curves of her body that can also bee seen in a 1899 Lautrec poster.
In the film the costume is modelled by Myriamme who symbolises the emancipated woman, a model working for a fashion designer (in Huston's movie Lautrec falls in love with her).
Gabor makes her last appearance in the film in a green gown with a matching and feathered hat bizarrelly shaped like a Spanish comb morion helmet. The most distinguishing Schiaparelli features characterising the costumes appearing in this film are probably the voluminous leg of mutton sleeves.
Moulin Rouge won Marcel Vertès an Academy Award for Costume Design; Schiaparelli's role in costuming Gabor went unacknowledged even though she actually got on-screen credit for Jane Avril's costumes.
As a final connection between art and fashion, I’m posting here a very inspiring lithograph by Lautrec portraying French singer, dancer and entertainer Marcelle Lender, taken from an exhibition that took place in 1947 at Irene Brin and Gaspero Del Corso’s Rome-based Obelisk Gallery.
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