From Your Personal Shopper in Paris: Christian Lacroix to design for Elsa Schiaparelli

Designer Christian Lacroix has been chosen to create a couture collection as a tribute to Elsa Schiaparelli. The 15-piece collection will be unveiled in July during Haute Couture Week in Paris and will be showcased at 21 Place Vendôme, where Schiaparelli’s original workshop was located.

Each of the unique pieces by Lacroix is expected to be reinterpretations of the late designer’s most famous creations.

Diego Della Valle purchased the trademarks and archives for Elsa Schiaperelli’s brand  and in a press release, has finally detailed his strategy for the fashion house.

Commenting on Schiaparelli’s work, Lacroix commented “In this persona incarnating a true aristocrat, one finds a spirit where mathematics and literature as well as poetry coexist: Elsa is a sacred sphinge who never ceases to interrogate us while offering us new enigmas as answers. Art, theater and cinema … my wish is to reposition Elsa at the center of her maison and on the stage from which she once seduced the world.”

Lacroix will produce the first garments made under the Schiaparelli’s name for almost 60 years and they will likely be on show during Paris Couture Week in July.

As to who will take over for Lacroix, or if he will continue with a ready-to-wear collection if this first couture collection is well-received … that remains to be seen.

From Your Personal Shopper in Milan: Schiaparelli Brand To Be Revived By Diego Della Valle

Diego Della Valle, owner of the Italian apparel label Schiaparelli, has announced that he intends to relaunch the iconic fashion label that closed in 1954.

The announcement from Mr. Della Valle, who is also the President and CEO of the Italian leather goods company Tod’s, has come a day before an exhibition highlighting the brand was to open at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York. Five years since he bought the Schiaparelli brand in 2007, Diego della Valle will push forward a revival of a style he calls “inimitable” and “modern.”

The Creative Director for the clothing label is likely to be finalized by October. However, the company has already engaged French actress and model Farida Khelfa to serve as the label’s new brand ambassador.

Praising late Elsa Schiaparelli, the original creator of the brand, for being the very first designer to mix fashion art and Haute Couture, which is inspiring fashion designers till date, Ms. Farida said it is a matter of pride for her to be the new face of the brand.

The label would mark its return by reopening its Maison Schiaparelli on Place Vendôme in July. The Maison is the original location from where the late designer operated during 1930s and 1940s.