Together with Dior and Coco Chanel, her main rival in her professional life, she was one of the most significant designers of the 20th century. Elsa Schiaparelli, a rebellious noblewoman of Italian origins, was adopted with pride by Paris, “La Ville-Lumière”, where she spent a lifetime renewing not only fashion but also its underlying concepts.
For Elsa the well-established values of traditional tailoring were barriers to be surpassed and overturned through the introduction of new materials and fabrics, maxi and micro volumes, original details and revolutionary insights. In this dress we see for the first time the use of a printed pattern that has been applied completely out of its normal context. The hands seem to ironically embrace the wearer’s waist, thereby creating a very amusing optical illusion. Thus the forms of the body cleverly and playfully interpenetrate the world of fashion.
