Art and Fashion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Art and Fashion - Essay Example The essay "Art and Fashion" focuses on the fashion designs and Elsa Schiaparelli. Schiaparelli’s well known designs in regard to fetish, gender and sexuality, were feminine and functional and at the same time maintained the theme of Surrealist of the woman body as fetish. Schiaparelli is well remembered for working together with Salvador Dali and through their work, Surrealist work become animated and also gained life. Through working together with Dali, Schiaparelli took fashion out of the closet, turning it into dressing with attitude. Dali had much respect on the way Schiaparelli’s designs were able to bring out physical revelation to the fantasies of the insensible mind. In addition, Dali had respect on Schiaparelli’s ability to come up with a form of feminine beauty matching to male’s erotic imagination. The materiality of dressing, when used as an adornment of the body, turned Surrealist work into visual fashion, and fashion gave way for the creation of well-designed pieces out of extraordinary or ordinarily less useful objects. These facts form a basis for the explanation of why Dali and fellow Surrealists had much attraction to haute couture. One issue that is worth considering is that a majority of Schiaparelli’s work has become a key contributor in clothing design, but, unfortunately, her contribution goes unrecognized. However, Schiaparelli in collaboration with Dali managed to bring Surrealism to life, animating paintings and changing art into wearable and functional element. Schiaparelli was well aware that clothes and accessories had the ability to function as an extension of a woman, enabling women to change their personality and make a choice of what they intend to become. Apart from collaborating with Dali, Schiaparelli also collaborated with other Surrealists such as Oppenheim, Giacometti, Aragon, Fini, and Triolet in making jewelry and perfume containers and clothing. In addition, Schiaparelli's personal col lections were also thematically Surrealist (Baudot, 2006). Different from the long-term Coco Channel whose pieces of work continue to bloom, the House of Schiaparelli has not managed to achieve such stable popularity. In the same breath, Schiaparelli’s pieces of art have not been able to trigger a fabulous deal of significant analysis compared to Coco channel (Peacock, 1993). Therefore, Schiaparelli’s contributions in the fashion industry are yet to be fully acknowledged. Many have dismissed Schiaparelli’s contributions on grounds that they are derivative and others accusing her of stealing other people’s ideas. The 2007 V&A even staged fashions by Schiaparelli, but this was one of a few exhibitions that staged her work. Therefore, finding exhibitions with Schiaparelli’s work remains extremely rare and the last exhibition that had an exclusive devotion to her work took place in September 2002 and January 2003 at the museum of art in Philadelphia (W ood, 2007). Contrary to what is mentioned above, there were a number of publications on