The revamped interest in the house of Schiaparelli has led in the last few years to a progressive rediscovery of her work and career. Her dresses and gowns often appeared in exhibitions, more designers referenced her in their own collections and, every now and then, there were also special auctions of her pieces. Yet rediscovering this brand hasn't financially rewarded its current owner, Italian entrepreneur Diego Della Valle.
Though Della Valle bought the name in 2006, he waited for quite a few years before relaunching it. During this time he worked on the maison headquarter and renovated Schiaparelli's grand rooms on the Place Vendôme.
Then Christian Lacroix was called to design a one-off collection (that never went on sale), while Marco Zanini was chosen as creative director. He was followed in 2015 by Bertrand Guyon, a French graduate of the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne who had worked at Valentino with Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri.
But last Friday the house announced it was parting ways with Guyon after four years. An official statement from the brand read: "The Schiaparelli house is grateful to Bertrand Guyon for his contribution to the haute couture activity of the house, in close collaboration with the creative studio and the atelier of the Place Vendôme house."
Today it was announced that 33-year-old designer Daniel Roseberry, has been named Artistic Director of Schiaparelli. Roseberry studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, then for 11 years he worked at Thom Browne where he was also design director of men's and women's collections.
Will he succeed where his colleagues failed? Hopefully, but it is difficult to be sure about it. Delphine Bellini, chief executive officer of Schiaparelli, has announced the visibility of the ready-to-wear line (inspired by the story theme rather than by seasons, with three stories released so far revolving around the artist Man Ray, the Shocking Pink shade and Italian Renaissance paintings) will be increased and the next big appointment for the house will instead be a collaboration with the Paris Opera on its 350th anniversary gala on May 8.
You may argue that failure at Schiaparelli wasn't entirely the fault of its creative directors.
Yet, there has been a tendency in the collections created so far especially the Haute Couture ones (even though they were beautifully crafted) on focusing on Schiap's best known tropes - the Commedia dell'Arte, circuses, trompe l'oeil knitwear, hearts and stars, astrological signs, lobsters and her links with artists and Surrealist icons à la Salvador Dali - rather than in coming up with extremely innovative ideas (leafing through some vintage magazines from the '40s and the early '50s would have led to the discovery of other less known designs by Schiap...).
Besides, there was an emphasis on Haute Couture collections and this meant that the most beautiful, quirky or intriguing gowns and suits reappeared on red carpets or were donned by celebrities such as Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett, Celine Dion, Lady Gaga and Helen Mirren (quite a few designs by Guyon, such as his flamingo-inspired suit, will be included in the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's upcoming "Camp: Notes on Fashion" exhibition), but did not prove extremely inspiring for ordinary people.
Now, while it is possible to revamp a house, such a project must be done cleverly, and to do it you need money, cool ideas but also a wider range of products that will allow you to reach out to your consumers. Other historical houses that went from languishing to prospering such as Chanel aren't focused just on Haute Couture or on clothes, they are indeed major universes surrounded and supported by a series of powerful satellites, from accessories to make-up and fragrances.
Schiaparelli has so far been represented by fancy headquarters, grand or well-crafted Haute Couture designs and just three ready-to-wear collections, but no real money-making semi-affordable products.
Schiap was known for her whimsical jewellery, but there are no crazy desirable accessories on the brand's runways where the Surrealist humour of the brand's founder is often missing; Schiap was known for her "Shocking" fragrance packaged in a bottle modelled on Mae West's bust, but the maison does not produce any fragrances. Schiap was also identified with a bold and bright colour - shocking pink - that kept on coming back in the most extravagant tulle confections on Guyon's runways, but this vivid shade wasn't transferred onto more affordable products. Maybe a line of make-up called "Shocking by Schiap" (well, Nars launched a shocking pink lipstick and nail varnish dubbed "Schiap" in 2012...) would have won the heart of beauty obsessed consumers or, who knows, T-shirts and sweats with prints of rarely seen photographs of Schiap clothes rather than the usual lobster dress?
As it stands Schiap remains useless, frozen in time and space (the maison closed in 1954), unable to influence trends and unable to sustain itself. In a nutshell it represents a missed opportunity and a warning to all those entrepreneurs who may want to try and revamp a historical house. People interested in reopening a defunct brand take note: it's a wonderful opportunity, but it can turn into a disastrous idea.
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