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The Exhibition

In the galleries, iconic ensembles by Schiaparelli and Prada are presented alongside short videos of simulated conversations

between the two designers directed by Luhrmann, focusing on how the women explore similar themes in their work through very

different approaches.

“Juxtaposing the work of Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada allows us to explore how the past enlightens the present and how the

present enlivens the past,” said Koda.

“The connection of the historic to the modern highlights the affinities as well as the variances between two women who constantly

subverted contemporary notions of taste, beauty, and glamour,” added Bolton.

The exhibition, in the Metropolitan Museum’s first-floor special exhibition galleries, features approximately 100 designs and 40

accessories by Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973) from the late 1920s to the early 1950s, and by Miuccia Prada from the late 1980s to the

present, drawn from The Costume Institute’s collection and the Prada Archive, as well as other institutions and private collections.

Eight short videos created by Luhrmann, in which Prada talks with Schiaparelli, who is played by actress Judy Davis, animate the entry

gallery and the seven themed sections of the exhibition and provide the thread that connects the objects. In the films, “Schiap” and

Prada are seated at a dining table in dialogue that has been created using paraphrased excerpts from Schiaparelli’s autobiography,

Shocking Life, and Prada’s filmed remarks. Visitors will have the impression of eavesdropping on a fantastical meeting of two great

fashion minds.

The section of the exhibition entitled “Waist Up/Waist Down” looks at Schiaparelli’s use of decorative detailing as a response to

restaurant dressing in the heyday of 1930s café society, while showing Prada’s below-the-waist focus as a symbolic expression of

modernity and femininity. An accessories subsection of this gallery called “Neck Up/Knees Down” showcases Schiaparelli’s hats and

Prada’s footwear. “Ugly Chic” reveals how both women subvert ideals of beauty and glamour by playing with good and bad taste

through color, prints, and textiles.

“Hard Chic” explores the influence of uniforms and menswear to promote a minimal aesthetic that is intended to both deny and

enhance femininity. “Naïf Chic” focuses on Schiaparelli and Prada’s adoption of a girlish sensibility to subvert expectations of age-

appropriate dressing. “Classical Body” explores the designers’ engagement with antiquity through the gaze of the late-18th and early-

19th centuries. “Exotic Body” touches on the influence of Eastern cultures through fabrics such as lamé, and silhouettes such as

saris and sarongs.

“Surreal Body,” in the final gallery, illustrates how both women affect contemporary images of the female body through Surrealistic

practices such as displacement, playing with scale, and blurring the boundaries between reality and illusion, natural and artificial.

Schiaparelli, who worked in Paris from the 1920s until her house closed in 1954, was associated closely with the Surrealist

movement and created such iconic pieces as the ‘tear’ dress, the ‘shoe’ hat, and the ‘bug’ necklace. Prada, who holds a degree in

political science, took over her family’s Milan-based business in 1978, and focuses on fashion that reflects the eclectic nature of

Postmodernism.