evening dress

Elsa Schiaparelli 1890 - 1973

Summary

Evening dress of printed silk crepe with a striking design of white lilac blossom and green foliage on a mottled turquoise ground; sleeveless with shoulder straps; large early celluloid side zip; bias cut with flounced ruffle to rear hem. A very painterly silk which seems to have attracted the artist in Schiaparelli. Provenance: Doris Delevigne, Viscountess Castlerosse. She was renowned for her Schiaparelli wardrobe (see also 2012.12 from the same collection), and another evening coat from the same collection which Jean Cocteau collaborated on, is in the V&A (T.59.2005). Doris married Castlerosse in May 1928 but then had a sequence of high profile affaires including those with Winston and Randolf Churchill. After Doris and Castlerosse divorced in 1938, she moved to New York in 1939 and died after an overdose in 1942. Unlabelled but confirmed as Schiaparelli (with the print probably designed by Sache) by Dilys Blum (visit to archives on 7.7.16). See similar printed dress by Schiaparelli in L'Officiel, no. 188, p.44, 1937, described as 'afternoon frock by Schiaparelli in 'fleurs de Trefles' printed blue, mallow and pink on black ground by Ducharrne'.