Cocktail hat
Schiaparelli's involvement with Surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí inspired her to create clothing and accessories that could elicit a viewer’s double-take. To pair such an off-beat accessory with a couture garment was just the kind of humorous irony Schiaparelli enjoyed incorporating into her work. This hat from the fall 1939 collection features bunches of various types of grapes perched on top of the wearer's head. The idea itself of wearing fruit on one's head is humorous and whimsical but also surreal in that although the fruit and the surrounding leaves are extremely realistic, the hat is a chic, functional accessory.
Artwork Details
- Title: Cocktail hat
- Design House: Schiaparelli (French, founded 1927)
- Designer: Elsa Schiaparelli (Italian, 1890–1973)
- Date: fall 1939
- Culture: French
- Medium: silk, cotton, collagen, mineral wax
- Credit Line: Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Arturo and Paul Peralta-Ramos, 1955
- Object Number: 2009.300.1871
- Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute
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