{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O88472"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O88472/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2012FP4694/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2012FP4694/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2012FP4694","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PE2944","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PE2945","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PE2949","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PE2948","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PE2947","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PE2946","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FP4692","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FP4693","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FP4696","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FP4695","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AU6542","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2019MD5465","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2019MD5466","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O88472","accessionNumber":"T.398&A-1974","objectType":"Evening suit","titles":[{"title":"","type":""}],"summaryDescription":"Elsa Schiaparelli often used classic tailored jackets as a perfect foil for her gloriously adventurous embroideries. Her clothes were smart, sophisticated and often wildly eccentric, and she had a huge following. Her ideas, coupled with designs she commissioned from famous artists, were carried out with considerable skill. Salvador Dalí, Christian Bérard and Jean Cocteau, for example, designed fabrics and accessories. Jean Schlumberger produced costume jewellery and buttons. Art movements such as Cubism and Surrealism influenced her designs. She used tweed to make evening wear and hessian for dresses. She dyed furs, put padlocks on suits and popularised Tyrolean peasant costume.  \r\n\r\nThis jacket shows how Schiaparelli used historical and traditional embroideries, including magnificent ecclesiastical vestments, as sources of inspiration. The fronds and leaves are worked in bronze and gold coloured fine metallic threads and bright metal strips. Blue and pink oval glass rhinestones form stylised flower heads. In addition, tiny blue and gold sequins are scattered over the jacket to create interesting visual and textural effects. Three embossed metal buttons resembling star-like flowers fasten the garment. The deep hue of the silk velvet sets off the rich golds of the baroque design perfectly. \r\n\r\nLady Trevor Roper wore this ensemble, which forms part of the Cecil Beaton Collection. Sir Cecil Beaton was a society photographer. With great energy and determination Beaton contacted the well-dressed élite of Europe and North America to help create this monument to the art of dress. The Collection was exhibited in 1971, accompanied by a catalogue that detailed its enormous range.","physicalDescription":"Evening ensemble consisting of silk velvet jacket and skirt.\r\nJacket of silk velvet, with the fronds and leaves worked in bronze and gold coloured fine metallic threads and bright metal strips. Blue and pink oval glass rhinestones form stylised flower heads. In addition, tiny blue and gold sequins are scattered over the jacket. Three embossed metal buttons resembling star-like flowers fasten the garment. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Elsa Schiaparelli","id":"A2375"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"silk (textile)","id":"AAT243428"},{"text":"velvet","id":"AAT133711"},{"text":"rhinestone","id":"AAT10806"},{"text":"sequin","id":"AAT183896"},{"text":"metal thread","id":"x30421"},{"text":"metal","id":"AAT10900"}],"techniques":[{"text":"embroidering","id":"AAT53653"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Silk velvet, embroidered with rhinestones, sequins and silver-gilt threads, fastened with metal buttons","categories":[{"text":"Fashion","id":"THES48957"},{"text":"Evening wear","id":"THES48999"},{"text":"Embroidery","id":"THES48960"},{"text":"Womenswear","id":"THES49044"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&F","id":"THES48601"},"images":["2012FP4694","2025PE2944","2025PE2945","2025PE2949","2025PE2948","2025PE2947","2025PE2946","2012FP4692","2012FP4693","2012FP4696","2012FP4695","2006AU6542","2019MD5465","2019MD5466"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"SAINS","id":"THES276095"},"free":"","case":"FIG083","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"SAINS","id":"THES276095"},"free":"","case":"FIG083","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Skirt","id":""}],[{"text":"Jacket","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"No","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Paris","id":"x29068"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1938","earliest":"1938-01-01","latest":"1938-12-31"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Lady Trevor Roper","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"1650","unit":"","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"Footprint mounted"},{"dimension":"Width","value":"500","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"Footprint mounted"},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"500","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"Footprint mounted"},{"dimension":"Circumference","value":"69","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Jacket - Waist (measured inside garment)","note":"Measured by Conservation"},{"dimension":"Circumference","value":"101","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Jacket - Bust (measured inside garment)","note":"Measured by Conservation"},{"dimension":"Width","value":"36","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Jacket - Across back","note":"Measured by Conservation"},{"dimension":"Length","value":"45","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Nape-waist","note":"Measured by Conservation"},{"dimension":"Length","value":"57","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Jacket- Nape-hem","note":"Measured by Conservation"},{"dimension":"Length","value":"47","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Jacket - Sleeve (underarm-cuff)","note":"Measured by Conservation"},{"dimension":"Length","value":"64","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Jacket - Sleeve (shoulder-cuff)","note":"Measured by Conservation"},{"dimension":"Circumference","value":"65","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Skirt - Waist (measured inside garment)","note":"Measured by Conservation"},{"dimension":"Length","value":"107","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Skirt - Waist-hem","note":"Measured by Conservation"}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"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\nPublished in pg. 104 Modern Fashion in Detail – Provenance:  Lady Trevor Roper now Lady Dacre of Glanton.\r\n\tExtremely luxe velvet \r\n\tPhoto Notes: \r\n\tCF closure: sun flower buttons\n\nJan G. Reeder, Curator, The Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art\r\nTaken May, 2011, Compiled September, 2011\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Evening ensemble consisting of embroidered silk velvet jacket and skirt, designed by Schiaparelli, Paris, autumn-winter 1937-38.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["T.398-1974","T.398A-1974"],"accessionNumberNum":"398","accessionNumberPrefix":"T","accessionYear":1974,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Jacket","Skirt"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-06","recordCreationDate":"2004-01-06","availableToBook":false}}