Interwar star designer Elsa Schiaparelli has been largely forgotten until now enjoying posthumous success on red carpets. Elise Chassaine’s film, narrated by Clara Luciani, looks back at her story.
A brilliant mind and trajectory between shadow and light. Born in 1890, a visionary designer, among artists throughout Paris and the interwar period, Elsa Schiaparelli was a fashion star who faded into obscurity until her death in 1973. His story never found its noble letters until recently. It has enjoyed posthumous success since 2019 thanks to artistic director Daniel Rosebery, who perpetuates his vision in his fashion house. He has also been awarded an exhibition by the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris since June 2022 Shocking. The surreal worlds of Elsa Schiaparelli. Documentary film Shocking SchiaparelliOn October 28, Friday, broadcast on France 5, completes this recovery.
Schiaparelli fall-winter 2021-2022 haute couture show in the video
First there was Elsa
Through her documentary, journalist Elise Chassaine uncovers the story of this great name in 1930s fashion. A fashion house in the renaissance era, but above all in the creative spirit of Elsa. The journalist takes a modern look, colored by feminism, on this creative and deeply free woman born in 1890 who never stopped breaking free from the shackles of her time. To the point of affecting our dressing room.
Not so long ago, the fuchsia of her perfume “Shock” and her acquaintances with surrealist artists were faint memories of Elsa Schiaparelli, whose house was closed in 1954 due to failure. However, Coco Chanel’s contemporary (and rival) has repeatedly said: stood out for its emancipated, whimsical and unprecedented vision of women’s wardrobe.
Proof with its first tour de force, trompe-l’oeil knitwear that we would qualify today as sportswear. A free spirit that Elise Chassaine tries to decipher by immersing herself in the designer’s unhappy and dreamy childhood and revisiting her often impulsive, sometimes pragmatic, but always instinctive life choices.
Schiaparelli reinvented it
The documentary opens with a silhouette that made modern history: a bird-embellished dress worn by Lady Gaga at Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021. A bias that shows the director’s career, witnessed during three years of work. for the revival of the house of Shiap in the hands of the house’s current artistic director, Texan Daniel Roseberry.
Coming and going between intimate history and fashion history, illustrated by the testimonies of historians and actors of the current scene, for whom we only regret the absence of Marisa Berenson, actress and granddaughter of Elsa. The fate of a woman told by fans.
“Shocking Schiaparelli» Directed by Elise Chassance and co-written by Damien Cabrespin, it airs on France 5 on Friday 28 at 11.15pm and doubles until January.
Source: Le Figaro
