Evening Jacket
late 1937 (designed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Elsa Schiaparelli was famous for her attractive and wittily designed evening ensembles. Her clothes were smart, sophisticated and often wildly eccentric, and she had a huge following. Her ideas, coupled with designs she commissioned from famous artists, were carried out with considerable skill. Salvador Dalí, Christian Bérard and Jean Cocteau, for example, designed fabrics and accessories. Jean Schlumberger produced costume jewellery and buttons. Art movements such as Cubism and Surrealism influenced her designs. She used tweed to make evening wear and hessian for dresses. She dyed furs, put padlocks on suits and popularised Tyrolean peasant costume.
This jacket employs a subtle yet innovative use of different fabrics and textures. Schiaparelli cleverly combines a classic tailored cut with vibrant colour and unusual metal coiled trimmings. This garment, which caused astonishment in the 1930s, now seems feminine and uncontroversial.
This jacket employs a subtle yet innovative use of different fabrics and textures. Schiaparelli cleverly combines a classic tailored cut with vibrant colour and unusual metal coiled trimmings. This garment, which caused astonishment in the 1930s, now seems feminine and uncontroversial.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Woollen cloth, trimmed with metal coils, lined with silk |
| Brief description | Evening jacket, pink woollen cloth, designed by Elsa Schiaparelli, London, Autumn/Winter 1937 |
| Physical description | Evening jacket of bright pink softly piled woollen cloth and fitted to the figure and hip length. The small rounded collar and curved pocket flaps are trimmed with overlapping rows of braid formed of coiled metal springs in shades of blue, pink and green. The jacket fastens almost to the neck with dark blue buttons with a cast design of a standing Venus. The sleeves are long and plain and the shoulders are slightly padded. Lined with matching pink silk. |
| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Credit line | Given by Lady Glenconner |
| Object history | Photo Notes: Pocket detail: coiled overlapping metal springs Jacket front: brushed wool Button detail: nude female Jan G. Reeder, Curator, The Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Taken May, 2011, Compiled September, 2011 |
| Summary | Elsa Schiaparelli was famous for her attractive and wittily designed evening ensembles. Her clothes were smart, sophisticated and often wildly eccentric, and she had a huge following. Her ideas, coupled with designs she commissioned from famous artists, were carried out with considerable skill. Salvador Dalí, Christian Bérard and Jean Cocteau, for example, designed fabrics and accessories. Jean Schlumberger produced costume jewellery and buttons. Art movements such as Cubism and Surrealism influenced her designs. She used tweed to make evening wear and hessian for dresses. She dyed furs, put padlocks on suits and popularised Tyrolean peasant costume. This jacket employs a subtle yet innovative use of different fabrics and textures. Schiaparelli cleverly combines a classic tailored cut with vibrant colour and unusual metal coiled trimmings. This garment, which caused astonishment in the 1930s, now seems feminine and uncontroversial. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | T.63-1967 |
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| Record created | December 15, 1999 |
| Record URL |
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