Schiaparelli and Prada Discuss Fashion and Art In Iconic Exhibit

Although they were born six decades apart and never met, Italian fashion designers Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada, come together at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a conversation that any fashionista would not want to miss. As a part of the exhibit, Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations, both designers’ work is on display including video conversations between the two, despite Schiaparelli’s death in 1973. Using video imaging technology, Actress Judy Davis portraying Schiaparelli converses with Miuccia Prada as they agree to disagree on their perspectives and approaches to fashion.

Inspired by Miguel Covarrubia’s satirical Impossible Interviews for Vanity Fair in the 1930s, the exhibit features over 100 designers and 40 accessories by Schiaparelli and Prada. Schiaparelli’s designs, from the 1920s to 1950s, showcase many aspects of the surrealist movement and the etiquette norms of women of that time. While Prada’s designs, from the 1980s to present, reflects a postmodernist approach to fashion.

The exhibit includes seven themes that both designers so eloquently share opinions as seen throughout their work. Each collection of pieces feature garments from Schiaparelli and Prada with visual conversations between the designers.

The collection Waist Up/Waist Down embodies Schiaparelli’s concept of the waist up being important to the café society set of the 1930s, including her infamous shoe hat. Prada on the other hand, showcases the importance of waist down and modern feminity through skirts, an extension of Prada’s predilection and popularity with shoe fashion.

The Exotic Body collection resembles the influence eastern cultures had on both Schiaparelli and Prada evidenced in both designers use of saris, sarongs, and variations on the wrap dress aesthetic. Some other collections include Ugly Chic, Hard Chic, Nair Chic, and Classical Body. The final collection of the exhibit, Surreal Body, accentuates the blurring of boundaries in beauty between reality and illusion. Both Schiaparelli and Prada use different fabrics and textures that successfully juxtaposes natural against artificial.

Although both designers came to the fore in in a time of heated social and politically charged thought, their views on fashion are conceptually different, but relative to the times they came to prominence. Schiaparelli appeals to fashion dressmaking as an art, Prada does not fell the same way. “Fashion designers make clothes and they have to sell them… we have less creative freedom than artists,” explains Prada to Schiaparelli.

Despite the recreated conversation between Prada and Schiaparelli, the true conversation pieces are the garments that provoke thought and conversation and evoke a bygone era.

The exhibit will run through August 19^th.

–Cory Orlando