The Philadelphia Museum of Art boasts 103 rare garments and accessories by Elsa Schiaparelli that allow curators, historians, and visitors to make several connections between art and fashion. In 1969 the Italian-born and Paris-based designer who revolutionised the world of fashion in the '30s by collaborating with the Surrealist artists donated indeed several of her garments to the Musée de la Mode in Paris, the V&A in London and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
"At the time she had been forgotten as a designer and she started looking for institutions that wanted her pieces," Dilys Blum, Senior Curator of Costume and Textiles at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, told me when I interviewed her for the December issue of What's The Fashion? "The ones that were donated to us resonated with art and with our modern art collections, in particular with the works of Duchamp and Man Ray. Though not enormous, our collection features all the iconic pieces, from the Lobster Dress, to the Tear Dress and the Cocteau jacket."
When I spoke to Ms Blum she told me the Philadelphia Museum would be glad to add to their Schiaparelli collection, but there is not much out there in a good condition. "Quite a few pieces were altered and there are many variations of Schiaparelli's works around, so you may see a jacket appearing in a sale with slightly different embroidery from the original that we have here," Blum stated.
Schiaparelli's designs have actually been popping up at auctions all over the world in the last few months. At the beginning of December, Schiap's couture Zodiac jacket from the Astrology Collection, Winter 1938-39 (not shown in this post), featuring twelve Lesage couched and embroidered gilt strip signs of the zodiac and with the left shoulder and hip panel embroidered and beaded with the Big Dipper (part of the Ursa Major constellation and Schiaparelli's good-luck emblem), was sold for the record sum of £110,000 at Kerry Taylor Auctions' sale.
Yet the best is yet to come: Christie's will indeed have a very special Schiap auction on 23rd January 2014. This time the auction will indeed feature 180 items from Schiap's personal collection currently owned by her granddaughter, actress Marisa Schiaparelli Berenson.The Personal Collection of Elsa Schiaparelli will feature Schiap's own designs including trademark boleros in pink wool with jet bead trim (estimate: €12,000-15,000) or in ice blue crêpe
(estimate: €15,000-20,000) both from 1940 and in shades that matched her perfumes Shocking Pink and Sleeping Blue; a waistcoat with "Bucking Bronco" beadwork, inspired by Elsa Schiaparelli's trip to Texas in the '40s and with some connections with her Circus Collection (estimate: €10,000-12,000), and a violet silk blouse from Schiaparelli's Astrologie Collection (estimate: €25,000-30,000). These pieces will be auctioned alongside garments from her personal wardrobe with her monogram 'E.S' embroidered into the lining, and with many ethnic pieces such as Oriental robes, and North African, Chinese, Ottoman and Persian costumes, plus artworks, photographic portraits and interior design objects and furniture.
Schiap's wardrobe definitely sticks to one of her 12 commandments (or guidelines) for women published in her autobiography Shocking Life: "Ninety percent are afraid of being conspicuous, and of what people will say. So they buy a gray suit. They should dare to be different."
Schiap dared to be different not only when it came to her wardrobe, but also when it came to furnish the spaces she lived in.
In a way fashion is not the only star of this auction: wealthy investors may indeed prefer to opt for an Alberto Giacometti 1936 floor lamp modelled with the head of a young woman (estimate: (€60,000-80,000), a portrait of Schiaparelli's daughter Maria Luisa 'Gogo' by Leonor Fini (1908-1996), who created for Schiap the bottle for her famous perfume Shocking in 1937 (estimate: €30,000-50,000); Louis XVI chinoiserie wool Aubusson tapestries (estimate: €20,000-30,000), photographic portraits by Man Ray (1890-1976), a Marcel Vertès screen, most likely created for the presentation of Schiaparelli's 1939 Spring-Summer "Commedia dell'arte" collection (estimate: €10,000-15,000) or an extravagant chic lilac-upholstered "love-seat" (estimate: €600-800).
Individual lots will start at €500 and the collection is expected to realise around €800,000, though you can bet it will easily reach a higher sum, considering also all the artworks included in this auction.
Who will be battling for Schiap's personal collection? Private fashion and art collectors, but probably also museums, the recently revamped House of Schiaparelli and obviously quite a few contemporary fashion houses and designers on the lookout for new inspirations or for original pieces to rework and recreate for their own collections.
The auction "The Personal Collection of Elsa Schiaparelli" will be held on January 23 2014 at Christie's, 9 rue de Matignon, Paris.
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