{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O117953"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O117953/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PG1223/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PG1223/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PG1223","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PF9481","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PF9516","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PG0437","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PF9515","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BK4735","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BK4737","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BK4738","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BK4736","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GB0253","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GB0254","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GB0255","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O117953","accessionNumber":"T.59-2005","objectType":"Evening coat","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Elsa Schiaparelli  (1890-1973) was famed for her attractive and wittily designed evening ensembles. Her clothes were smart, sophisticated and often wildly eccentric, and she had a huge following. Her ideas, coupled with those she commissioned from famous artists, were carried out with considerable skill.  She had close connections to the art world, and to the Cubist and Surrealist movements in particular.  Salvador Dalí and Christian Bérard are among the artists who collaborated with her.  This connection with the wider art world and its ideas set Schiaparelli apart from most other fashion designers.\r\n\r\nThis superb evening coat is one of the best examples of her close artistic collaboration with the French artist, poet and film maker Jean Cocteau (1889-1963).  Cocteau produced two drawings for Schiaparelli which were translated into designs for a jacket and this evening coat for the Autumn 1937 collection. \r\n\r\nThe design for the evening coat reveals Cocteau's preoccupation with the double image, a motif he consistently returned to in his work.  The double image held particular fascination for several other artists associated with the Surrealist movement, including Dalí.  The strong linear design on this coat can be read as two profiles facing each other, and in the negative space, a vase of roses standing on a fluted column.","physicalDescription":"An ankle-length coat of black silk jersey by Schiaparelli.  The collarless neckline with short lapels and the waist with a single black ceramic button having a design of a petticoated skirt and dancing leg, the hook fastening beneath.  The back bodice designed by Jean Cocteau and embroidered by Maison Lesage with confronting facial profiles in gold thread forming a shaped vase filled with roses of tucked pink silk and leaves of green thread decorating the upper back and shoulders, the eyes of a blue stone and the lips of red foil, the centre back skirt with applied gold thread to imitate pleats.  The lining is of sea green silk (shattered) and interlining of black wool, labelled Schiaparelli London and numbered 4995.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Schiaparelli, Elsa","id":"A2375"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""},{"name":{"text":"Cocteau, Jean","id":"A7817"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"Lesage","id":"A14929"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"silk jersey","id":"x30419"},{"text":"silk (textile)","id":"AAT243428"},{"text":"gold thread","id":"x30128"},{"text":"wool (textile)","id":"AAT243430"}],"techniques":[{"text":"Applique","id":"AAT53646"},{"text":"embroidering","id":"AAT53653"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Silk jersey, with gold thread and silk embroidery and applied decoration in silk","categories":[{"text":"Evening wear","id":"THES48999"},{"text":"Fashion","id":"THES48957"},{"text":"Embroidery","id":"THES48960"}],"styles":[{"text":"Surrealist","id":"AAT21512"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&F","id":"THES48601"},"images":["2025PG1223","2025PF9481","2025PF9516","2025PG0437","2025PF9515","2006BK4735","2006BK4737","2006BK4738","2006BK4736","2013GB0253","2013GB0254","2013GB0255"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"SAINS","id":"THES276095"},"free":"","case":"FIG070","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Coat","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1937","earliest":"1937-01-01","latest":"1937-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by the American Friends of the V&A","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Width","value":"53.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"intact panel of silk, including selvedges","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'Schiaparelli London'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Label."},{"content":"'4995'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Number on the back of the label, hand-written."}],"objectHistory":"Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973) was one of the world’s revolutionary fashion designers. Her couture house, one of the most discussed of interwar Paris, redefined fashionable taste and perceptions of beauty in the 20th century.  With no formal training, she launched her first fashion collection in 1927. Her bold, often audacious, haute couture creations soon made her the designer of choice for a confident clientele. Within five years, Maison Schiaparelli employed 400 staff who created over 7000 couture garments each year.  \r\n\r\nOften designing to confront and shock, Schiaparelli’s radical approach embraced the new and experimental, resulting in clothes that were resolutely modern. Perhaps more than any fashion designer of the era, Schiaparelli urged textile manufacturers to bring her their newest and best materials. At the same time, Schiaparelli’s impact extended beyond fashion and she possessed a vibrant artistic sensibility. Embedded within Europe’s creative avantgarde, she positioned her work in direct dialogue with art, design and performance. Her collaborations with artists, including Salvador Dalí, Jean Cocteau and Meret Oppenheim, led to some of her most radical and memorable designs for clothing, accessories and jewellery. In 1954, Schiaparelli officially retired and closed the doors of her couture salon. She left an enduring mark on the world of fashion and a creative legacy that spanned the cities of Paris, London and New York.  \r\n\r\nThis superb evening coat designed by Schiaparelli, is one of the best examples of her close artistic collaboration with the French artist, poet and film maker Jean Cocteau.\r\nCocteau produced two drawings for Schiaparelli which were translated into a design for an evening coat and a jacket for the Autumn 1937 collection.  In September that year he also illustrated one of Schiaparelli's dresses for American Harper's Bazaar, writing \"Schiaparelli made this dress for dance and I copied it for Harper's Bazaar.  Jean\".\r\n\r\nThe design for the evening coat reveals Cocteau's preoccupation with the double image, a motif he consistently returned to in his work.  The double image held particular fascination for several other artists associated with the Surrealist movement, including Salvador Dali.  The strong linear design on this coat can be read as two profiles facing each other, and in the negative space, a vase of roses standing on a fluted column.  The use of bold lines to define the composition is typical of Cocteau's style and was beautifully translated into embroidery by the Paris firm of Lesage.\r\n\r\nDilys Blum, curator of Fashion and Textiles at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and author of  <font -i>Shocking! The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli </font> has suggested that the double profile design on the reverse of the coat may represent Tristan and Isolde.  Salvador Dali used a similar double image for his Tristan and Isolde brooch of 1953.\r\n\r\nAnother example of this evening coat is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (part of the Schiaparelli bequest).  However the example in Philadelphia has faded to a mid-lavender and the design differs slightly.  In the V&A's example, the appliqué roses are more profuse, covering the shoulders; the collar is lower and the column motif has four flutes rather than the five found on the Philadelphia example.  The shape of the back panel may also differ.\r\n\r\nTwo examples of the Jacket are known.  One in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and one in the Historical Society of Chicago.\r\n\r\nProvenance:\r\nThe coat was bought or especially ordered from Schiaparelli London by the Viscountess Doris Castlerosse (1901-1942, nee De Lavigne, first wife of Valentine Browne, Lord Castlerosse, later 6th Earl of Kenmare).\r\n\r\nThe Viscountess was a leading socialite of the 1930s.  She was a close friend of Cecil Beaton and posed for several photographic portraits.  Married to the Viscount Castleroose, the couple bought and lived in the Palazzo Venier in Venice.  Late in 1948, Peggy Guggenheim purchased the Palazzo from the heirs of the Viscountess.\r\n\r\nThe coat has remained with the family and has been worn up until the present day.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Ankle-length coat of black silk jersey with facial profiles forming a rose-filled vase, Elsa Schiaparelli, Jean Cocteau and Lesage, London, 1937.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Dilys E. Blum, <font -i>Shocking! The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli </font> (Philadelphia: The Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2003), p.140."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Harper's Bazaar, USA edition, September 1937"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Poster for <font -i>Les enfants terribles </font> 1950 by Cocteau; offset lithograph, 165 x 122cm."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Painting by Cocteau, <font -i>The Etruscan Vase </font> ; oil on canvas, 73 x 60cm, 1952.  Private collection."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Brooch by Salvador Dali, <font -i>Tristan and Isolde </font> , 1953; 18 karat yellow gold, patinum, diamonds.  Fundacio Gala-Salvador Dali"}],"production":"Autumn 1937 collection. Working from 4 Rue de la Paix in Paris, Elsa Schiaparelli opened in London at 36 Upper Grosvenor Street in 1934.\n\nReason For Production: Commission","productionType":{"text":"Haute couture","id":"THES48861"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Beaton","id":"N2787"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"flowers","id":"x31099"},{"text":"leaves","id":"x31545"},{"text":"vase","id":"AAT132254"},{"text":"human faces","id":"x36025"},{"text":"urns","id":"AAT129425"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Evening coat\r\nElsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973)\r\nAutumn 1937\r\n\r\nElsa Schiaparelli’s designs were characterised by their witty, Surrealist-inspired details. This coat depicts a profusion of roses in an urn which can also be viewed as two faces in profile. The double image held a particular fascination for Surrealists such as Salvador Dalí. The embroidery is by the Paris house of Lesage, after a drawing by Jean Cocteau. The coat was ordered from Schiaparelli’s London house by the Viscountess Doris Castlerosse, a leading socialite of the 1930s.\r\n\r\nLondon\r\nSilk jersey, with gold thread and silk embroidery and applied decoration in silk\r\nWorn by Doris Castlerosse\r\nGiven by the American Friends of the V&A\r\nMuseum no. T.59-2005","date":{"text":"2012","earliest":"2012-01-01","latest":"2012-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["T.59-2005"],"accessionNumberNum":"59","accessionNumberPrefix":"T","accessionYear":2005,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Number on label","id":"THES56954"},"number":"4995"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-03-20","recordCreationDate":"2005-10-28","availableToBook":false}}