Evening belt
Design House Schiaparelli French
Designer Elsa Schiaparelli Italian
Not on view
Music was the theme for Schiaparelli's fall 1939 collection, which manifested itself in music boxes on belts and hats, buttons shaped like drums, and shimmering embroidered instruments and music notes. This musical box belt is one of two examples in the Brooklyn Museum collection (see 2009.300.1165b.) The charming scrollwork outer casing which alludes to the cut out scrolls in a violin case and, on its outer edges, the shape of a rest in musical notation, holds what once was a working music box. Once the dress, gloves and belt were donned, the wearer could physically embody the music that was being played from the belt. In fact, it is thought that the notes on the dress are from the song that the belt plays, a witty touch Schiaparelli probably would have thought was humorous.
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