Shiaparelli at Alaia

The French fashion designer Azzedine Alaia who, although he is not known by most of the general public, has become by reputation and critical acclaim one the giants of fashion world during his on-going 30 year career as a couturier. Alaia’s workshop showroom, retail store, along with a boutique hotel called 3 Rooms and a small part of his factory are housed under one roof in a 5,500 square meter building in the heart of the coveted Marais section of Paris.

Mssr. Alaia’s work gets it unique flavor from the fact that there in only one chef in the kitchen when he’s cooking up fashion. From soup to nuts, sketches, patterns, prototypes, fabric selection as well as him personally sewing together the final product that goes to market it’s all generated from his imagination and whipped into shape by his hand alone. This truly vertically integrated manufacturing is a rarity in our world of licensees and lust for instant consumer gratification from fast and faster fashion. Underneath the busy workshop and bustling boutique are three sub cellars that cover the surface of half of a city block. The treasures housed and cataloged there are a marvel of a lifetime Mssr. Alaia’ collecting vintage couture as well as the preservation of his iconic personal collections.

Each piece in the cellars, culled from his close contemporaries like Commes des Garcons, as well as legends of the craft like Vionnet and Charles James, is stored to museum standards and will one day form the basis of permanent works for the Alaia Foundation. This museum in the making will exhibit and educate the public on the art of fashion and design. In the grand hall with a glass roof that plays host to the showroom at the house of Alaia there are often previews of rare designer collections before the lots make their way to auction. The last show of this kind was on the work of the seminal French designer Paul Poiret who made famous the hobble skirt and the high collared wrap coat of the roaring twenties.

On preview from Friday June 26th, to Sunday June 28th from 11 am to 6pm at 18 Rue de la Verrerie Paris 4 eme, if you have the good fortune to be in Paris, important designs of the ground breaking designer Elsa Schiaparelli, who coined the term “shocking pink”, will go on view to the general public. The pieces on view are dated between 1935 and 1950, which despite the hardship of war and recession are a glorious and fertile reflection of the time. The garments in the show are very relevant to our fashion trends this season. Schiaparelli designs have a relaxed construction that has kept them looking modern for last 74 years. Simple raincoats and bathrobes in ultra-lux fabrics, she crisply tailored with roomy proportions that add up to the coveted boyfriend silhouette that we’re all chasing after this season.

Lot 150: a black wool shrug with monkey fur trim shown with backless low cut evening dress from 1935, far outdating the scandalous Mc Queen “bumster” jeans, is an clear example of fashion at it’s best – when it pushes our notions of what’s permissible because, breaking the rules should always be a beautiful thing. Schiaparelli had an eye for artists and she drew the greatest of her generation into her creative process. Do not miss the rarely exhibited jewel of a co-creation between herself and the painter Jean Cocteau from 1937. The evening jacket cut from natural linen, depicts a drawing made by Cocteau embroidered with a masterful restraint by Lessage in Paris. The figure of a reclining woman’s profile with golden beaded hair, who’s long slender arm circles the waist of the jacket tapering into an extended hand clutching a Safire blue fan between fingers glittering with red nail polish is at once sensual and naïve. To see it is so evocative of the time and place that you travel within your minds eye to the Paris that once was…

Also on view, and just as spectacular, in the surrealist vein are the jewelry collaborations she cast with Salvador Dali. Visitors will be treated to suits, evening coats and simple day dresses with strikingly modern details like hot pink industrial zippers running down the back of the frock as the main design feature. Schiaparelli are ideas, as expressed in through the clothes and accessories contained in this exhibition, are so clear and her execution is always with the perfect balance of naughty wit and strict construction it’s a quick master class in the recognition of the real essence of a great artist which is to be simple, shocking and modern all at the same time.

Don’t miss it. Feed your fashion fetish.

The Auction takes place July 3rd at 2:15 pm at Millon Cornette de St Cyr Rue Drouot Paris 9eme. Telephone +33 1 48 00 20 01. Email: C. Chassine at chambert-sternbach@luxepert.com

–Veronica