Word: schiaparelli
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...Paris couture in general is in parlous economic shape. Eastern European markets (except for exiled royalty) have dried up. Currency and import restrictions have cut purchases from Britain, Spain, Scandinavia, Brazil and Argentina. Since war's end eleven major houses have closed (among them: Molyneux, Lelong, Paquin, Worth, Schiaparelli). The big houses make their money on sales to the U.S. and abroad, or on sidelines-perfume, hosiery, etc. But most depend on private individual customers, who even at Dior account for more than 60% of the total dress sales. Nowadays, few couturiers do much better than break even...
Through the dark '305, Vogue cut its pattern to the times, counseled readers to concentrate on "more taste than money." When World War II broke, it dutifully reported on Paris fashions until its staff fled the city. Schiaparelli's last Paris collection, said Vogue bravely, had been "especially ingenious . . . With metal and leather taken by the Army, she fastened her coats with dog leashes." In bombed-out London, British Vogue continued to publish, carried ads for "especially designed protection costumes ... of pure oiled silk . . . available in dawn, apricot, rose, amethyst, Eau de Nil green and pastel pink...
Tragedy struck-in the form of Elsa Schiaparelli. The struggle lasted ten years. In 1938, almost overnight, the women of Paris, followed sheeplike by the women of the world, turned from Coco to the invader from Italy, with her exaggerated feminine conceits, her tassels, her flaming colors and "parachute" silhouettes. "Chanel wanted the tricot sailor frock with the long sweater, the short skirt," says Schiaparelli. "I took the frock. I altered the line . . . Voilà! Chanel ees feeneesh...
...private policemen on hand to watch his guests and their estimated $9,000,000 worth of jewels. The cops were impeccably clad as 18th century plainclothesmen, but not all the guests were so socially correct. Washington Socialite Gwendolyn Cafritz burst in, looking very modern, with an apology: "I had Schiaparelli whip this up only yesterday; I had simply no time to find anything 18th century," Screen Star "Zizi" Jeanmaire (Hans Christian Andersen) turned up in a few strategically placed sequins, riding what might or might not have been an 18th century camel. Another girl came as a white rabbit, with...
During her latest fashion show in Paris, Designer Elsa Schiaparelli watched her picket-thin mannequins parade her creations, then cried, "Stop the show. Where are the bosoms? Where are the hips?" To illustrate, she took a jacket from a model and tried it on herself. When it failed to close across madam's own well-developed bust, she said: "See what I mean? Designers keep forgetting that women are females, human beings with legs, bosoms, hips. I am sick of the cardboard silhouette. I am cutting out the frills, the whalebones, the stiff flounces, all that inhuman nonsense...