Button

Various artists/makers

Not on view

These intriguing ornamental buttons are strikingly similar to the form of the bottle of the perfume "Sleeping," introduced for Schiaparelli's summer 1940 collection. The bottle was shaped like a lighted candle emerging from a floral-shaped base and perhaps these ornamental buttons were a precursor to the final perfume bottle design, or a stylized version of it. Schiaparelli used her buttons as an avenue for creative expression. They were often in unexpected shapes made of unusual and avant-garde materials such as the plastic, glass, painted metal alloy and wire of this example. They complemented her suit jackets with the perfect dose of Surrealist commentary.

Button, Schiaparelli (French, founded 1927), glass, metal, plastic, French

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