Lobster dress as worn by Beatrice Brandini
I’ve already spoken repeatedly about how art influences fashion (and not vice versa)—think of Picasso, Mondrian, Dalí—but perhaps there’s one dress that more than any other has captured the essence of this fusion: the lobster dress, created by Elsa Schiaparelli using a drawing by Salvador Dalí.
The original lobster dress and its 2017 reinterpretation
Elsa Schiaparelli (my first post on the blog about a designer, way back in October 2013 https://www.beatricebrandini.it/en/elsa-schiaparelli-the-wonder-and-amazement-in-fashion/ ) was a great creative whose defining characteristic was creating clothes with complete freedom, self-taught, but with a strong dose of creativity and humor. Perhaps this is why she encountered Dalí and Surrealism, an exchange of ideas and quotes from two “crazy” minds.
Another Elsa Schiaparelli dress, interpreted by Beatrice Brandini
Their union was born from a profound need: to create haute couture dresses that embodied visions that were normally confined to the language of painting. In reality, Elsa Schiaparelli was not only influenced by Dalí’s art, but also explored all the stylistic innovations of the avant-garde art movements of the 1930s.
Wallis Simpson photographed by Cecil Beaton wearing an Elsa Schiaparelli dress
The lobster dress is a beautiful, witty, and elegant gown. It achieved great popularity when Wallis Simpson wore it in 1937, photographed by the great Cecil Beaton, shortly before marrying the Duke of Windsor, King of England, who abdicated in her favor in May of that year.
Detail of the Lobster Dress
But what did the lobster mean to Dalí? It was the brazen symbol of desire and vulnerability, of eroticism and theatricality. Dalí conceived it as majestic, a protagonist, as if taken from one of his canvases and transported into a white silk dress.
Salvator Dalí and his lobster telephone
Hence the shoe hat, also by Schiaparelli, the skeleton dress, the trompe l’oeil dresses, the perfume bottle inspired by the curves of Mae West…
I had one thing in mind: to save myself from the monotony of salon life and bourgeois hypocrisy. Because of my avant-garde ideas, I was considered crazy. Elsa Schiaparelli
Enjoy your life, everyone!
Beatrice