Schiaparelli & Prada: Impossible Conversations (Metropolitan Museum of Art) [Hardcover] [2012] Andrew Bolton, Harold Koda, Judith Thurman

by Elisa Urbanelli, Harold Koda, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Although separated by time, Miuccia Prada and Elsa Schiaparelli—both Italian, both feminists—share striking affinities in terms of their design strategies and fashion manifestoes. Presented as an intimate "conversation," Schiaparelli and Impossible Conversations aims to tease out formal and conceptual similarities between the two designers. Striking photographs and insightful texts illustrate the parallels between the two, including their preferences for interesting textiles and prints, eccentric color palettes, and a bold and playful approach to styling and accessories. Schiaparelli, in the 1920s through 50s, and Prada, from the late 1980s to today, exploited the narrative possibilities of prints, sought out unconventional textiles, played with ideas of good and bad taste, and manipulated scale for surrealistic outcomes. Contemporary art plays a major role in the work of these inventive women—Schiaparelli in her famous collaborations with Dali and Cocteau, and Prada via her Fondazione Prada. Blending the historic with the contemporary, the catalogue brings the masterworks of both designers together into a grand conversation between the most important women fashion designers to ever emerge from Italy.

Genres: Fashion

Hardcover

Published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Laroy Viviane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un peu un livre qui fait rêver. Par ces belles photos, ces citations croisées des deux fashion designers que sont Prada et Schiaparelli, par les sauts de le temps, pour les belles matières, les coupes... Tout ça dans un catalogue d'exposition. Bien joué. Même si les rapprochements entre les deux créatrices est parfois un peu forcé.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice pictures. Sometimes the writing in these fashion books is only to be understood by those who inhabit that world.