Elsa Schiaparelli

Born in Rome in 1890, she was thought of as unfashionably thin in her youth while her older sister was thought to be a beauty. At the age of 19 Schiaparelli went to the University of Rome to study Philosophy, however her uncle acknowledged Elsa’s curiosity as they spent time looking through his telescope. Two years after Elsa started University, published a novel of pomes about sorrow, love, sensuality and mysticism as Schiaparelli had a spiritual way of thinking about the world. However her father wasn’t very pleased with the content and he sent her to a convent, which she was then removed from after going on a hunger strike.

At the age of 22 Schiaparelli accepted an offer to travel to England and work as a nanny. On her way to London Elsa went to a ball in Paris as she had no ball gowns, Elsa bought some dark blue fabric, wrapped it around her body and pinned it in place. When Elsa arrived to London she spent here time visiting museums and attending lectures. Schiaparelli moved with her husband to New York, where she worked as a scriptwriter, although Elsa enjoyed and appreciated to the modernity of the city, her husband abandoned his family as he distanced himself from the city and by the time he left Gogo Schiaparelli, Elsa’s first child was born.

Schiaparelli was introduced to Gaby Picabia the ex-wife of born artist Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, therefore when Man Ray and Gaby left for Paris, Elsa joined with them. When Schiaparelli arrived in Paris, she began making clothes and one of her dresses was seen by Paul Poiret, who asked Gaby to “compliment the designer” and encouraged by his comment Elsa opened her own business only to be closed in 1926 regardless of the flattering reviews. Schiaparelli’s knitwear sweaters collection was launched in early 1927 using double layered stitches in order to hold the sweaters shape as well as the geometric design decoration; this led to featuring the sweaters in Vogue the next month.

In spring of 1927 Schiaparelli started expanding her collections, including skirts, wool cardigans and accessories. In summer of 1927 Elsa launched a sweater with the illusion of a white bow knitted into a black background, which also featured in Vogue with the heading “artistic masterpiece.” Elsa then included bathing suits, beach pyjamas, tweed sport suits, two-piece linen dresses, coats, and ski costumes to her collection.

In 1930 and 1931, Schiaparelli continued to make progression in practical sportswear, introducing a patented invisible brassiere backless bathing suit and a daring divided skirt for a tennis costume, which was worn by Lili de Alvare. Strengthened by her accomplishment in sportswear, Elsa introduced her reversible black and white evening dresses in1931 that included draping trains that clipped up under the waist for dancing. In 1933 Schiaparelli returned to New York and was shocked by reporters that surrounded her as she was unaware of her designs’ popularity in the United States.

In 1940 Schiaparelli’s collection was based on a military theme relating her ideas to the war as she included a brown and disguise print taffetas. In July of that year begun a lecture’s tour called “Clothes and the Woman”, when her tour ended Elsa then returned to New York in 1941 to live there until the war ended. During the war Elsa volunteered at a variety of war-relief associations.

 However after the war ended in 1945 Schiaparelli found that women were interested in the “New Look”, recalling the gloves, petticoats and the corsets from 30 years before. Christian Dior was known as the master of the New Look, on the other hand Schiaparelli continued to present collections expressed her understanding of fashion since she rejected the new fashion movement. However by 1854 Elsa Schiaparelli was forced to close the house of Schiaparelli as she was financial troubled. Nevertheless Schiaparelli continued working for celebrities until her death in 1973.  

Although Schiaparelli’s career faded in the 1954, she is still an influence in fashion today as many designers constantly imitate and adjust her ideas and designs.

Fashion from 1930-1940

In the 1930s women started to sew and make clothes at home by mending and patching garments as women started to lose interest in buying expensive ready-to-wear clothes even though fashion was changing drastically. The flapper twenties style was replaced by softer and more feminine styles. Also hemlines dropped from the knee to the ankles and this continued until the end of the decade. Torsos were molded below squared shoulders; necklines were also lowered, soft gathering replaced darts and most importantly dress’s waist were brought back to the normal waistlines.

The upper skirt yokes was introduced during the decade, they became popular for the detailed shaped of the skits. The skirt yokes was a v-shape and extending from one hip to the center of the yoke and continuing to the opposite hip. Other skirts were often designed layered/full at the bottom with pleats or gathers.

Films were influencing fashion as evening gowns were introduced by movie stars to the public. Launching the peplum in the thirties as an evening wear, empire-waist frock with ties at the back with a hemline that fell to the ankles and trains to add formal glamour to the style, boast butterfly or large, puffy sleeves, bows were also added for decoration.

Fur became popular during the thirties and women were wearing it during the day or in the evenings. Fur capes, coats, stoles wraps, accessories and trimmings decorated women’s dresses. The desired pelts were sable, mink, chinchilla, Persian lamp and silver fox.

Improvements that were accomplished during the decade was of the developments in the mass production techniques. This gave women the opportunity of accessing well-made clothes, however when the World War II started limited women from accessing to manufactured clothing as men and women were focused on their responsibilities.

Fashion in the 1940s

During the war women recycled and reproduced new garments using old unwanted clothes as the media encouraged women to be home sewers. Vintage wear became very popular in the 1940s and women tried to create elegant styles without spending too much money. Collections of fashion houses during the war were of knee-length dresses and featured padded shoulders, fashion trends were mainly simple and practical in order to help women work and look elegant.

Hats became very popular during the war and women were able to use recycled older pieces of clothing, which otherwise would go to waste. Suites also became popular during the war as they were comfortable for women and easy to move in during work. Women normally curled their hair and wore bright lipstick to maintain their femininity.   

How the fashion industry was affected during the Word War II

During the WW2 women’s lives took a drastic change, as men joined the army forces women were forced to take on their husbands’ responsibilities whether it was at home or at men’s work place. Some women even worked in the military forces, which demanded of them to either go near or into combat zones, causing some women to loose their lives.

As women’s lives were more practical, fashion began to express the newfound force of women. Collections included big, broad shoulders and slacks, practical knee-length skirts and strict tailoring. Smart suits, simple frocks, sensible shoes and a serviceable shoulder bag which became the working woman’s fashion uniform. The fashion statement during the WW2 was the military uniform, a fitted jacket and a sensible skirt or slacks, the colours options were also limited to only olive drab, khaki, white and navy.

As the war years progressed, the fashion industry started to lack access to fibres as silk was used for parachutes, nylon for military supplies and metal for weapons. However the media was quick to promote methods for home sewers, assisting women on how to make dresses out of curtains, jackets from cushions and how to cut-down adult’s clothing and make them into children’s wear.                           

Fashion designs and creativity were limited, because most designers weren’t supplied enough of common fibres, such as leather (replaced by cork soles.) On the other hand fur which was not rationed and it was used to regain the glamour that was missing in fashion during the war. Therefore designers focused on the use of interesting colours, details and accessories, for example chartreuse, maroon, rust, ochre and teal replaced the plain styles. Shoulders decorations, which emphasized the strong top-heavy silhouette also became popular, and sweetheart necklines accompanied the look. Exotic floral and neat polka dots also replaced decorative elements (beads, braid…etc), also shoes collections changed from sophisticated to astounding sky-high platforms.

Britain was majorly affected during the war and the government took every opportunity to help produce affordable clothing. Therefore the British government encouraged women to reinvent fashionable items by recycling and reproducing old clothes. However, the Utility scheme was made illegal as the government thought it to be unpatriotic to decorate clothes and forbade manufacturers using the CC41 (Clothing Control 1941). Although the government thought of CC41 as unpatriotic the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers, whom invented the CC41 thought of it as creative. The society was led by Captain Molyneux, Norman Hartnell, Digby Morton, Victor Stiebel, Angèle Delange, Peter Russell, Madame Bianca Mosca and Hardy Amies. Their 34 smart Utility designs included, squared shoulders jackets/blazers and short skirts. The Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers tried to keep fashion interesting while to the usage of cloth was narrowed. The items that became popular in the fashion industry were the turban, which was worn by women to prevent their hair from entangling in factory machines. Also the siren suit, the wedge sole shoe and the kangaroo cloak were also very popular. 

Paris was seen as the house of fashion and although there were many fashion houses in France before the war, a great number of them closed as WW2 broke, some closed for several years while others closed permanently. As some of the well known designers started to fade out, American designers started to emerge the surface of the fashion industry. Megan Spagnolo said "Though American designers couldn't completely pave their own way at this point, it really helped that they no longer had the competition from overseas."

Men mainly wore military uniforms; while women had to swap the then most fashionable convertible suit for a jacket, short skirt and blouse (the jacket could be shed for night wear). Stockings were unavailable and women used their eyebrows pencil to draw a line at the bake of their legs in order to create the illusion of them wearing stockings.

Fashion was thought to be invented in France, as many great French designers broke the fashion industry, such as Paul Poiret, Coco Chanel and Madeline Vionnet. However many fashion houses, including the Maison Vionnet and the Maison Chanel and fashion French designers started setting up fashion houses in other countries.

Due to difficult times, housewives were more appreciated for dealing with the responsibilities they had and the Vichy regime promoted models of wives and mothers supporting the new comfortable and practical fashion creation. Women’s evening gowns became shorter, their daywear’s colours were lighter and the clothes were practical.

Designers were able to create new collections only because they recycled fabric and made use of the material that would usually be thrown away. Although many fashion houses closed down in Paris during the war, other houses remained open and continued to produce astonishing new collections, such as Nina Ricci, Jacques Fath  , Marcel Rochas and many more.