Innovative clothing of 1939: Elsa Schiaparelli

In my occasional series on clothing of 1939, I am showing some items that surprise me at their modernity. See Can you name the vintages? for the work of some designers that seems astonishingly new to this day. In previous blogs I showed some ca. 1939 work by Steven Arpad and by Claire McCardell. One of the most interesting designers just prior to WWII is undoubtedly Elsa Schiaparelli. Here are a few of the Metropolitan Museum's Schiaparellis, dated 1939.

Wool and silk suit

Wool and silk coat

Silk evening blouse

Silk evening pumps

Silk evening ensemble

Cotton seed packet dress

Music dress and gloves manufactured by the House of Lesage

Silk evening dress

In the mid to late 30s, Schiaparelli collaborated with Jean Cocteau and Salvador Dali to create some now iconic surrealist fashions...well worth a blog all their own.

Heels over head: The shoe hat returns

Shoes have reached new heights again, approximately 5'11", atop the heads of models in the Paris 2009-10 Haute Couture show of Eric Tibusch.

Ah, nostalgia.

In 1937-38, Elsa Schiaparelli, in collaboration with Salvador Dalí, created a shoe hat that has surprised and bemused ever since.


A shoe hat also makes a most appropriate appearance on a surreal character in Terry Gilliam's movie Brazil (1985):


I tip my hat, er, shoe to Eric Tibusch's nod to the proud surrealist tradition...

...or might that be an oxymoron?