Lobsters turned into a fashionable motif after Elsa Schiaparelli's infamous dress arrived on the fashion scene.
Designed in 1937 by Schiaparelli in collaboration with Salvador Dalí, the white silk organza evening gown with a print of an oversized lobster was deemed unusual, surreal and controversial.
The lobster was indeed out of place on this elegant and feminine gown, yet it perfectly mirrored Schiap's passion for original designs, evoking Dalí's art, like his lobster telephone from 1936.
The dress (now part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art collection) was made famous when it appeared in Vogue magazine, modeled by Wallis Simpson, who later on married the Duke of Windsor.
Since then, as you may remember also from previous posts, lobsters appeared as embroidered motifs, prints and accessories as well.
Lobsters returned in Daniel Roseberry's Schiaparelli S/S 24 collection, that featured a painted lobster on a jacket, an oversized lobster necklace and a draped cream jersey sarong skirt with a lobster strategically placed over the crotch.
Before that, Thom Browne's Pre-Fall 2022 was a riot of lobsters: the collection featured an armor-like lobster tail skirt and matching pincer mittens, lobster-shaped rucksacks, white or red lobster-dotted formal suits and preppy intarsia cardigans obviously decorated with lobsters.
Legend goes that French poet and essayist Gérard de Nerval used to walk a lobster around the streets of Paris on a blue ribbon.
Apparently he would do so to upset the bourgeoisie, and, throughout the years, we have seen further extravagant lobster-related moments courtesy of the late Isabella Blow (View this photo and View this photo) and of Lady Gaga as well (View this photo).
Yet, before that, lobsters were pretty popular subjects on Christmas cards. Browse through well-stocked archives and institutions like the Victoria & Albert Museum (you can discover more about their Christmas cards and lobster designs from this video), and you may be able to spot some great examples of Victorian era Christmas cards, often featuring babies riding lobsters, a lobster parade or a lobster snapping at children (not sure why, maybe they were naughty and the lobster retaliated…).
Now, some of us may have had seafood, crab or lobster during a grand Christmas dinner or may have seafood for the New Year's Eve celebrations. Which means that some of us (or our friends/relatives who prepared/are going to prepare the meal) may have around the house a claw cracker tool. Handy for all sorts of seafood, but especially for lobsters and crabs, these crackers at times are shaped like lobster claws and are coated in shiny red varnish, something that, to my eyes, makes them irresistible. Having a soft spot for all marine creatures, but for crustaceans in particular (I love their exoskeleton; if I were a mermaid I would probably have a pet lobster...), I removed the item from a friend's kitchen (note: removed, not stolen...removed) because I felt the need of doing something more original with this tool.
Despite the cracker in question wasn't as shiny as I would have liked, I still thought that it may have been reused. I dug into my box of leftover materials, found a sturdy elastic band that originally belonged to a broken Cressi Duke snorkeling mask (View this photo; I found it very apt reusing a piece of a diving mask for a necklace inspired by lobsters, remember to always disassemble things you must discard as, quite often, you will find a piece that may come handy in future…) and combined the two things together to come up with a rather unusual necklace.
I also used a leftover piece of leather to cover the screw in the middle of the cracker; the leather also helps securing the cracker open (I used an automatic button to keep the strip in place). Using the thick elastic and the black leather strip was a way to mimic the tape or the elastic that blocks the claws of lobsters when you buy them, but I wanted to reinterpret them and turn them from a constriction for the lobster, to a construction feat, almost a frame that keeps the necklace together and in place.
The result is wearable, avant-garde and bizarre, but also pretty cool, considering that it was just a matter of assembling the necklace and no glue or needle was employed to keep it in place. The only new material I used was the automatic button for the central leather strip (could be a nice exercise: make something almost entirely from recycled bits and pieces, using only one new material). The piece can therefore be completely dismantled and the lobster cracker could still be used for the purpose it was designed for.
So, did I save an innocent lobster who may have incurred in future in my friend's culinary rage? Possibly. Did I jeopardize a friendship with my kitchen tool drama? Probably. Do I have a new necklace? Definitely. Will I ever be invited again to a dinner where seafood/lobster/crab is served? Er, probably not. But, as I said, now I have a new and bizarre accessory at a minimal cost. Guess you can't have everything in life...
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