Art and Fashion by Elsa Schiaparelli

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Between the two world wars, Paris is the capital of fashion. In 1935, an ambitious Italian, Elsa Schiaparelli, installs her couture house place Vendôme. She was able to link with the art circles (and particularly with the Surrealists), and her new designs were an immediate success. Like Chanel, she designed clothes for women, made to be comfortable to wear. She also introduced varied colors, and decorated her finest pieces with artistic embroidery.

Some customers were keen to follow her productions. The sale of Millon Cornette de Saint-Cyr in Paris (Drouot) July 3 includes no fewer than 40 models purchased by the same family to Schiaparelli before 1940.

Among them is a masterpiece, estimated 12 K €. This is a short jacket made of gray linen in the fall of 1937. It is decorated with a figure of a woman from a drawing by Cocteau. The head of the woman is leaning on the shoulder of the jacket, and long blonde hair extends like flames down the right sleeve. On the abdomen, the left hand is holding a metal-blue knot. The embroideries were made by Maison Lesage. Lesage and Cocteau were regularly collaborating with Schiaparelli.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

This jacket has been paid to the price of an artwork: 175 K € premium included.

I took a small risk when qualifying as a masterpiece a lot which was estimated at 12 K € only. The market has confirmed.

Often in Paris, reading the estimates does not help to anticipate the major results.