A brilliant mind and a trajectory between shadow and light.
A visionary designer born in 1890, close to all of Paris and artists from the interwar period, Elsa Schiaparelli was a fashion star who slipped into oblivion before dying in 1973. Her story never found its letters of nobility only recently.
It has enjoyed posthumous success since 2019, thanks to artistic director Daniel Roseberry who perpetuates his vision in his fashion house.
She has also been honored by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris since June 2022 with the exhibition
Shocking!
The surreal worlds of Elsa Schiaparelli.
The documentary
Shocking Schiaparelli
, broadcast on Friday October 28 on France 5, completes this rehabilitation.
In video, Schiaparelli fall-winter 2021-2022 haute couture show
In the beginning there was Elsa
Through her documentary, journalist Élise Chassaing explores the story behind this great name in 1930s fashion: a fashion house in the midst of a renaissance, but above all Elsa's creative spirit.
The journalist casts a contemporary look tinged with feminism on this creative and deeply free woman born in 1890 and who has never ceased to free herself from the shackles of her time.
To the point of influencing the locker room of ours.
Not long ago, the fuchsia of her "Shocking" perfume and her acquaintances with surrealist artists were the meager memories of Elsa Schiaparelli, whose house was closed for lack of success in 1954. However, the contemporary (and rival) by Coco Chanel has repeatedly distinguished herself by her emancipated, whimsical and unprecedented vision of the female wardrobe.
Proof with his very first tour de force, trompe-l'oeil knitwear that we would today qualify as sportswear.
A free spirit that Élise Chassaing sets out to decipher, plunging into the unhappy and dreamy childhood of the designer, and reviewing her often impulsive, sometimes pragmatic but always instinctive life choices.
Full screen
Shocking Schiaparelli
to see and review in replay on France TV.
France TV / Federation Studios
Schiaparelli reinvented
The documentary opens with a silhouette that has entered contemporary history: the dress adorned with a bird worn by Lady Gaga at the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20, 2021. A bias that illustrates the career of the director, witness in three years of work of the revival of the house of
Schiap
in the hands of the current artistic director of the house, the Texan Daniel Roseberry.
A coming and going between intimate history and fashion history, illustrated by the testimonies of historians and actors of the current scene, of which we only regret the absence of Marisa Berenson, actress and granddaughter of Elsa.
A woman's destiny, told by fans.
“
Shocking Schiaparelli
”
directed by Élise Chassaing and co-written by Damien Cabrespine, broadcast on France 5 on Friday 28 at 11:15 p.m. and on replay until January.
