Shocking! The Surreal World of Schiaparelli

Last week I was invited to the press opening of Shocking! The Surreal World of Schiaparelli and it was a fashion knockout. I always love exhibitions that transport you to another world and for about an hour I was transported to the whimsical, wild, and wonderful world of Elsa Schiaparelli, filled with far out fashion, exquisite jewelry, the circus, inventive accessories, and the signs of the Zodiac. 

Born into an aristocratic and intellectual family in Rome in 1890, Elsa Schiaparelli discovers Paris in 1913 and meets her future husband Count William de Wendt de Kerlor. In 1916 she moves to the U.S. and lives in Boston and New York, where she meets Man Ray, who photographs her in 1920, but separates from her husband, moving back to Europe in 1922, befriending the Dadaists. She presents her first fashion line in 1936, a collection of sweaters decorated with tromp-l’oeil bows and neck ties. They are a smash hit, and she then opens her first boutique on Place Vendome.

In her next foray, Schiaparelli collaborates with the great artists of her time including the surrealists Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau, and Meret Oppenheim, which inspire her to create some of her most iconic and brilliant works. With boundless creativity she goes on to launch a daring new perfume, Shocking, named after shocking pink, which she invented and popularized.

The prolific exhibition of 600 pieces is pure theater, curated on two floors in thematic and chronological order, which include 6,387 drawings, displayed on the floor and the walls at the entrance, costume jewelry, Jean Cocteau, A Poetic Line, The Butterfly and its Metamorphoses, Meret Oppenheim, Surrealist Artist, Place Vendome, The Perfume Cage, The Commedia dell’Arte, The Signs of the Zodiac, Circus, and finally, The Art of Embroidery. Photographs, paintings, ceramics, and posters, add another layer to the magic of Schiaparelli.

July 6, 2022 to January 22, 2023

Musee des Arts Decoratifs

107 rue de Rivoli, 75001

https://madparis.fr/Shocking-Les-mondes-surrealistes-d-Elsa-Schiaparelli