Evening ensemble

Designer Elsa Schiaparelli Italian
1937–39
Not on view
In Paris during the mid- to late-1930s, the major sites of fashionability were the theatre, restaurant and nightclub. The dinner suit, usually consisting of a dress or skirt with a jacket, became extremely popular for its non-specificity. Its wearer could go to Fouquet's for cocktails, Maxim's for dinner, and the Ambassadeurs for dancing without the necessity of changing clothes. Elsa Schiaparelli is credited with having invented the dinner suit in the early 1930s.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Evening ensemble
  • Designer: Elsa Schiaparelli (Italian, 1890–1973)
  • Date: 1937–39
  • Culture: French
  • Medium: (a,b) cotton, silk, metallic thread
    (c,d) plastic, glass
  • Credit Line: Gift of Julia B. Henry, 1978
  • Object Number: 1978.288.21a–d
  • Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute

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Elsa Schiaparelli - Evening ensemble - French - The Metropolitan Museum of Art