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Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations at Met

09 May '12
5 min read

The exhibition, in the Metropolitan Museum's first-floor special exhibition galleries, features approximately 100 designs and 40 accessories by Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973) from the late 1920s to the early 1950s, and by Miuccia Prada from the late 1980s to the present, drawn from The Costume Institute's collection and the Prada Archive, as well as other institutions and private collections.

Eight short videos created by Luhrmann, in which Prada talks with Schiaparelli, who is played by actress Judy Davis, animate the entry gallery and the seven themed sections of the exhibition and provide the thread that connects the objects. In the films, “Schiap” and Prada are seated at a dining table in dialogue that has been created using paraphrased excerpts from Schiaparelli's autobiography, Shocking Life, and Prada's filmed remarks. Visitors will have the impression of eavesdropping on a fantastical meeting of two great fashion minds.

The section of the exhibition entitled “Waist Up/Waist Down” looks at Schiaparelli's use of decorative detailing as a response to restaurant dressing in the heyday of 1930s café society, while showing Prada's below-the-waist focus as a symbolic expression of modernity and femininity. An accessories subsection of this gallery called “Neck Up/Knees Down” showcases Schiaparelli's hats and Prada's footwear. “Ugly Chic” reveals how both women subvert ideals of beauty and glamour by playing with good and bad taste through color, prints, and textiles.

“Hard Chic” explores the influence of uniforms and menswear to promote a minimal aesthetic that is intended to both deny and enhance femininity. “Naïf Chic” focuses on Schiaparelli and Prada's adoption of a girlish sensibility to subvert expectations of age-appropriate dressing. “Classical Body” explores the designers' engagement with antiquity through the gaze of the late-18th and early-19th centuries. “Exotic Body” touches on the influence of Eastern cultures through fabrics such as lamé, and silhouettes such as saris and sarongs.

“Surreal Body,” in the final gallery, illustrates how both women affect contemporary images of the female body through Surrealistic practices such as displacement, playing with scale, and blurring the boundaries between reality and illusion, natural and artificial.

Schiaparelli, who worked in Paris from the 1920s until her house closed in 1954, was associated closely with the Surrealist movement and created such iconic pieces as the 'tear' dress, the 'shoe' hat, and the 'bug' necklace. Prada, who holds a degree in political science, took over her family's Milan-based business in 1978, and focuses on fashion that reflects the eclectic nature of Postmodernism.

A series of gallery talks explores aspects of Surrealism, classicism, and exoticism in pairings from the Museum's collection, that relate to the work of Schiaparelli and Prada. On Sunday, June 17, Judith Thurman moderates Good Taste/Bad Taste: The Evolution of Contemporary Chic, a discussion with style icon Iris Apfel and editor-in-chief of RookieMag.com Tavi Gevinson, on what it means to be chic in the 21st century.

On May 15, The College Group at the Met hosts a panel discussion, Defining Chic: Then & Now, moderated by Julie Gilhart (fashion consultant) with Francesca Granata (Assistant Professor of Fashion Studies, Parsons), Leandra Medine (The Man Repeller), Scott Schuman (The Sartorialist), and Lynn Yaeger (Vogue.com Contributing Editor) about the evolution of the term “chic,” followed by a reception, tours of the exhibition, and a workshop.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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