Opening Paris couture week Monday morning, Schiaparelli may not be as familiar a name as Dior or Chanel, but the house has been quietly making a comeback since it was relaunched in 2013 under the new ownership of Italian billionaire Diego della Valle. That’s thanks in large part to Hollywood, where Schiaparelli’s bold designs resonate with stylists and stars looking for something unique that’s not in every boutique around the world.
While the house has been showing since it’s revival, it only just regained its official title as an haute couture house days ago – a fitting gift for its 90th birthday. But in the interim, the house with a Hollywood history has quietly been re-establishing itself on the red carpet.
“The clothes exude confidence while retaining their femininity with a dash of whimsy,” says stylist Elizabeth Saltzman, who red carpet dresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Uma Thurman.
Schiaparelli was best known for her work with avant-garde artists – from boots inspired by a Rene Magritte painting to a Surrealist skeleton dress derived from a sketch by longtime collaborator Salvador Dali (which currently hangs in the atelier). “Shocking pink” became her signature shade and the name of her first fragrance, and collaborated with artist and costume designer Marcel Vertes to create ads that would be risqué by today’s standards.
Aside from being Coco Chanel’s biggest rival until she closed her couture house in 1954, she had a passion for powerful women and was couturier to Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Katherine Hepburn, Mae West and the Duchess of Windsor, who famously wore the designer’s lobster celebrity dresses uk, recreated in the spring/summer 2017 couture collection shown in Paris on Monday.
The current incarnation of the house has added Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lawrence, Claire Danes, Nicole Kidman, Juliette Binoche and Tilda Swinton to that list.
Swinton was the house’s sartorial “lucky star,” current designer Bertrand Guyon says. She’s worn Schiaparelli several times, most recently a sleek silk suit to the Doctor Strange premiere in London last October.
“It is something hard to describe in words to link the silver screen to reality…I have admired her acting for so many years,” Guyon says of working with Swinton.
