The Work of designers Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada Celebrated This Spring at the Met
Model Guinevere Van Seenus wears the designer’s shocking-pink dress (fall 1937), silk-velvet bolero with metal embroidery by Lesage (fall 1938), and Starburst earrings, c.mid-1930s. Daniel Storto gloves.
All Schiaparelli Haute Couture pieces courtesy of Collecton Mark Walsh Leslie Chin; vintageluxury.com.
Fashion editor: Grace Coddington
Photographed by Steven Meisel
Model Daria Strokous wears Schiaparelli’s Mirror Print suit with flower buttons (spring 1937) and silk-velvet turban (winter 1937-38).
Rose necklace of enameled gilt metal and Flower Vase silk-satin purse, beaded by Lesage, both 1938. Portolano gloves.
Photographed by Steven Meisel
The Costume Institute unveils “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations” (May 10–August 19).
A half century separates the birth of Elsa Schiaparelli’s Jazz Age fashion house and Miuccia Prada’s debut at the storied luggage company started by her grandfather, but these two consistently thoughtful and thought-provoking bluestockings have each, as cocurator Andrew Bolton notes, used “fashion as a vehicle to provoke, to confront normative conventions of taste, beauty, glamour, and femininity.” Vogue
The Designers: Elsa Schiaparelli & Miuccia Prada
Selections from Prada collections spanning spring 1996 to fall 2011.
Hair: Guido for Redken
Makeup: Pat McGrath for CoverGirl
Production design: Mary Howard
Photographed by Steven Meisel
Natalia Vodianova in a duchesse-satin dress and turban from Prada creations.
Photographed by Steven Meisel
Model Karen Elson in monkey and banana prints from spring 2011.
Photographed by David Sims
Karen Elson in a gold leather top and an organza circle skirt (spring 2008).
Photographed by Mario Testino
Prada creation, including a ruby silk-gabardine mini on model Natalia Vodianova (spring 2007).
Photographed by Mario Testino
