Couture embodies fantasy and enchantment; for Elsa Schiaparelli, high fashion was also best filtered through the lens of arty surrealism.
Yet, quite often, in our society marked by constant permacrises, we experience the uncanny, rather than the surreal; we are forced to confront the unpredictable and the unexpected that trigger feelings of mistery or even a sense of discomfort and unease.
These contrasting feelings and emotions are hanging over the current Haute Couture shows, taking place a few days after the riots that followed the death of Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old French citizen of Algerian and Moroccan descent, killed by a police officer in the working-class suburb of Nanterre.
The themes and ispirations behind the first shows of the season were as glamorous as ever, a contrast with the images of teh riots we have seen on the Internet, on social media and on our Tv screens. Leaving behind Dante and the three faux taxidermy creatures that broke the Internet last season, Daniel Roseberry at Schiaparelli moved onto art.
The opening ensemble, with sinuous black and white planes swirling and intersecting to form a futuristic nun habit (perhaps the golden apple carried by the model alluded to the Garden of Eden?), seemingly hinted at monastic chic. However, after this first look that pointed at religion, Roseberry swiftly moved onto more artistic inspirations.
The chaotic, paint-splattered studio of Lucian Freud and his painterly strokes was evoked in a multicolored dress and bag, covered in an irregular mosaics sewn onto chiffon.
Yves Klein blue adorned a rigid skating skirt (that actually looked unfinished); the shade was also combined with white for a coat and reappeared as spray-painted body paint and in lacquered wooden jewelry.
Besides, a splash of sparkling gems appliqued in strategic places formed the outline of a statue on a white coat, an effect reminiscent of Dior's evocation of Leonor Fini's "Portrait of Alida Valli" in a dress from the house's Haute Couture S/S 18 collection.
Golden pebbles on a crocheted jacket and a skirt evoked the spirit of Capucci, who ingeniously crafted gowns adorned with appliqued pebbles in the '60s, meticulously preserving their natural hues to avoid falling into the kitsch trap in which Roseberry actually fell (the designer also proposed an alternative to this ensemble, a silver crochet cardigan and skirt embroidered with irregular broken mirrors).
The designer also played with proportions: voluminous coats and duvet coats adorned with multi-colored brushstrokes, imitating feathers, almost swallowed the bodies of the models; in other cases corsets cinched a model's waist reducing it to implausible dimensions.
Cardi B was spotted in the front row in a velvet gown accentuated by a gargantuan shrug with layered wool tufts amplifying volumes and resembling angelic wings.
Despite Roseberry's seamless transition from one artistic reference to another offered variation, the collection lacked a cohesive visual narrative.
Accessories featured Roseberry's trademark body-part-inspired motifs, long earrings evoking Giacometti's statues with elongated limbs, and his signature shoes and stilettos with golden or lacquered toes, aiming for that Magritte-inspired effect (but luckily he left behind the gold face masks that disquietingly looked like prosthetic masks from the First World War).
A few looks were literally laden with long chunky necklaces, a hint at extravagance and over the top maximalistst à la Iris Apfel. In three cases Roseberry accessorised his designs with a recreation of Apfel's signature chunky necklace crafted from wooden rosaries and hands (was this a return of the religious inspiration seen at the opening of the show?).
In the exhibition "Rare Bird of Fashion" (2005-2006, The Costume Institute at the Met Museum), Apfel included a tunic by Chado Ralph Rucci matched with Gianfranco Ferré's trousers and a long wooden necklace.
This strategy is terribly lazy to be honest: in a previous post we attempted to come up with our own version of Apfel's wooden necklace, but recreating for yourself something from a book, a magazine or a runway using found or cheap materials, can be a fun exercise; replicating it for a Haute Couture runway without proper attributing it to the person who originated it and without even changing it, diminishes the entire collection because it means that it may feature further designs ripped off from somewhere else.
In 2012, when Schiaparelli was relaunched, American fashion designer and business personality Jenna Lyons mentioned that Iris Apfel might have been an ideal candidate to spearhead the label's revival.
"She's brimming with life, possesses an incredible attitude...Though she may not aspire to, I believe she would be extraordinary, " Lyons told the New York Post.
Well, it appears Lyons was correct. At 101 years old, Iris Apfel still serves as an inspiration within the fashion industry and, despite her influence, like many women out there still doesn't get acknowledged.
As for Roseberry's vision of Schiap, despite all the brouhaha surrounding it and the celebrities endorsing the brand, it should maybe still be approached with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Comments