Schiaparelli and Swarovski continue their collaboration telling this season a story of mother-of-pearl and colourful multi-facetted crystal beads.
Everything started with a Lesage embroidery swatch from Fall 1940 Schiaparelli Haute Couture collection featuring mother-of-pearl flowers. The embroidery came on a black dress that Elsa Schiaparelli owned and later donated to London’s V&A.
Today, Schiaparelli design director Bertrand Guyon designs a wedding dress sprinkled with irises – one of Elsa Schiaparelli’s favourite flowers. Each bloom is embroidered once again by Lesage following the same original technique yet embellished with silver plate, Swarovski multi-facetted crystals and silver metal thread. The long ivory silk crepe cape-gown is scattered with 54,795 Swarovski crystal-hearted mother-of-pearls.
Further to Schiaparelli history of innovative materials, Bertrand Guyon collaborated with an independent female textile designer to create checked knitwear made of nylon yarn intertwined with Swarovski multi-facetted crystal beads. The exclusive savoir-faire merges 3D embroidery with almost invisible knitwear. Transparent, light and soft, it gives traditional knitting an unexpected volume and contemporary texture. Illuminated by a tartan of black jet and grege beads of over 2.4 million facets, the ruffled dress, made of this hybrid material, seems to defy gravity.