MUSÉE D´ARTS DÉCORATIFS (MAD), PARIS: SHOCKING ! LES MONDES SURRÉALISTES D’ELSA SCHIAPARELLI

from 6 July 2022 to 22 January 2023

From July 6^th, 2022, to January 22^nd, 2023, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris will celebrate the bold and exciting creations of Italian couturière Elsa Schiaparelli (b. September 10^th, 1890, Rome – d. November 13^th, 1973, Paris), who drew much of her inspiration from her close ties to the Parisian avant-garde of the 1920s and 1930s. 

Nearly 20 years since the last retrospective devoted to Schiaparelli at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the time has come to revisit this extraordinary designer’s work, her innovative sense of feminine style, her sophisticated, often eccentric designs, and the thrill that she brought to the world of fashion.

Elsa Schiaparelli, Details of the “Phoebus” Cloak, Winter 1937-1938

Wool, silk and embroidery. Musée des Arts décoratifs

© Valérie Belin

“Shocking ! Les mondes surréalistes d’Elsa Schiaparelli” brings together 577 works including 212 silhouettes and accessories by Schiaparelli herself, displayed alongside iconic paintings, sculptures, jewelry, perfumes, ceramics, posters, and photographs by the likes of Schiaparelli’s dear friends and contemporaries: Man Ray, Salvador Dalí, Jean Cocteau, Meret Oppenheim and Elsa Triolet. 

The retrospective, a highlight of the 2022/2023 Exhibition Calendar, will also showcase creations designed in honor of Schiaparelli by fashion icons including Yves Saint Laurent, Azzedine Alaïa, John Galliano and Christian Lacroix. Daniel Roseberry, artistic director of the House of Schiaparelli since 2019, also boldly interprets the heritage of Elsa Schiaparelli with a design of his own. 

The poetic and immersive scenography of “Shocking ! Les mondes surréalistes d’Elsa Schiaparelli” has been entrusted to Nathalie Crinière. The exhibition will be presented in the Christine & Stephen A. Schwarzman fashion galleries of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

“Being able to work with artists such as Bébé Bérard, Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dalí, Vertès and Van Dongen, with photographers like Honingen-Huene, Horst, Cecil Beaton and Man Ray was thrilling. 

We felt helped, encouraged, way beyond the material and dull reality of the making of a dress to sell”
Shocking life, Elsa Schiaparelli – 1954

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