Ready-to-Wear
Automne-Hiver 2020/21The Dreamer in Daytime
This season, I wanted to further explore who the Schiaparelli woman is through the context of ready-to-wear. This limited-edition collection honors all of the codes, and themes, of the Haute Couture collection. There is the same dedication to fantasy and irreverence; the same desire to make a woman feel simultaneously like a performer of her own life and the architect of it.
The Dreamer in Daytime
Haute Couture is a dream. But what happens when the dreamer wakes up?
This season, I wanted to further explore who the Schiaparelli woman is through the context of ready-to-wear. This limited-edition collection honors all of the codes, and themes, of the Haute Couture collection. There is the same dedication to fantasy and irreverence; the same desire to make a woman feel simultaneously like a performer of her own life and the architect of it.
Haute Couture, of course, is a celebration of fantasy: of time, of craftsmanship, of embellishment, of volume. The challenge was bringing that same sense of the extraordinary to everyday pieces, to garments that a woman could easily wear in her daily life but that still allowed her to feel as if she was expressing the most outlandish parts of her imagination. To this end, we extended our selection of what I like to call “disobedient jewelry”; bijoux that feels one-of-a-kind but not overly serious, that combine high craftsmanship with wit, that move parts of the body into new and disorienting locations. Some of my favorite pieces include a linked crystal-and-brass choker whose centerpiece is a nose; a pair of ear-shaped earrings already studded with strass “piercings”; a TK leather belt whose clasp is a pair of clasped brass hands; and a pair of spiked hoop earrings, a floating eye at each of their centers.
For the garments themselves, I worked with easy, yielding fabrics, ones that felt luxurious against the skin and drape effortlessly on a woman’s body. There are classic tailored pieces—with bijoux buttons—in dry hand wool gabardine in a limited, signature palette of elephant gray, shocking pink, and deep navy; cropped cardigan jackets and slouchy, wide-legged trousers in white or black embroidered double face wool crepe; and, in a direct reference to the Haute Couture collection, our overdyed pure silk faille, here in cartridge pleated flared skirts (refashioned with elastic waistbands) and a ballgown, also elasticized at the shoulders. Ready-to-wear is also a time for us to experiment with prints, and these prints—a spill of bijoux across a length of silk; vintage perfume bottles that pay homage to Elsa Schiaparelli’s legacy—embody the House’s devotion to surreal beauty.
Finally, we’ve also expanded our collection of handbag offerings, exploring different variations on our trapunto story, and introducing new silhouettes that will take a woman from daytime into evening. Here, too, the flourishes are in the details, many of which are tributes to Schiaparelli’s famous iconography—there is playful hardware in the form of keyhole closures (a symbol that’s also echoed in the chain links), as well as the repetition of the measuring tape pattern, which you’ll find on belts and shoes as well. The bags come in black and shocking pink: The former a recognition of the needs of the modern woman; the latter a recognition of Elsa herself. Collectively, it is a vision of a woman who knows who she is and, moreover, is unafraid to express it. She is a dreamer, and everyone who sees her becomes one, too.
This season, I wanted to further explore who the Schiaparelli woman is through the context of ready-to-wear. This limited-edition collection honors all of the codes, and themes, of the Haute Couture collection. There is the same dedication to fantasy and irreverence; the same desire to make a woman feel simultaneously like a performer of her own life and the architect of it.
Haute Couture, of course, is a celebration of fantasy: of time, of craftsmanship, of embellishment, of volume. The challenge was bringing that same sense of the extraordinary to everyday pieces, to garments that a woman could easily wear in her daily life but that still allowed her to feel as if she was expressing the most outlandish parts of her imagination. To this end, we extended our selection of what I like to call “disobedient jewelry”; bijoux that feels one-of-a-kind but not overly serious, that combine high craftsmanship with wit, that move parts of the body into new and disorienting locations. Some of my favorite pieces include a linked crystal-and-brass choker whose centerpiece is a nose; a pair of ear-shaped earrings already studded with strass “piercings”; a TK leather belt whose clasp is a pair of clasped brass hands; and a pair of spiked hoop earrings, a floating eye at each of their centers.
For the garments themselves, I worked with easy, yielding fabrics, ones that felt luxurious against the skin and drape effortlessly on a woman’s body. There are classic tailored pieces—with bijoux buttons—in dry hand wool gabardine in a limited, signature palette of elephant gray, shocking pink, and deep navy; cropped cardigan jackets and slouchy, wide-legged trousers in white or black embroidered double face wool crepe; and, in a direct reference to the Haute Couture collection, our overdyed pure silk faille, here in cartridge pleated flared skirts (refashioned with elastic waistbands) and a ballgown, also elasticized at the shoulders. Ready-to-wear is also a time for us to experiment with prints, and these prints—a spill of bijoux across a length of silk; vintage perfume bottles that pay homage to Elsa Schiaparelli’s legacy—embody the House’s devotion to surreal beauty.
Finally, we’ve also expanded our collection of handbag offerings, exploring different variations on our trapunto story, and introducing new silhouettes that will take a woman from daytime into evening. Here, too, the flourishes are in the details, many of which are tributes to Schiaparelli’s famous iconography—there is playful hardware in the form of keyhole closures (a symbol that’s also echoed in the chain links), as well as the repetition of the measuring tape pattern, which you’ll find on belts and shoes as well. The bags come in black and shocking pink: The former a recognition of the needs of the modern woman; the latter a recognition of Elsa herself. Collectively, it is a vision of a woman who knows who she is and, moreover, is unafraid to express it. She is a dreamer, and everyone who sees her becomes one, too.