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Dress

Design House Schiaparelli French
Designer Elsa Schiaparelli Italian
fall/winter 1937–38
Not on view
In her 1954 autobiography, Shocking Life, Schiaparelli recounts a childhood episode in which she plants flower seeds in her mouth so that they will grow into a garden and beautify her face. Evoking that early fantasy, she cut designs from a fabric custom-printed with flower seed packets and applied them in scattershot fashion on this simple summer dress. One appliqué functions as a pocket on the right side. A conspicuous gold zipper runs the full length of the back.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Dress
  • Design House: Schiaparelli (French, founded 1927)
  • Designer: Elsa Schiaparelli (Italian, 1890–1973)
  • Date: fall/winter 1937–38
  • Culture: French
  • Medium: cotton, plastic (cellulose nitrate)
  • Credit Line: Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Millicent Huttleston Rogers, 1951
  • Object Number: 2009.300.146
  • Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute

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