Cocktail hat
Elsa Schiaparelli
summer 1935 · silk, feathers · Costume Institute
Schiaparelli's involvement with Surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí inspired her to create clothing and accessories that could elicit a viewer’s double-take. To pair such an off-beat accessory with a couture garment was just the kind of humorous irony Schiaparelli enjoyed incorporating into her works. Throughout her career, she made headpieces that imitated hair, as this early example crafted of ostrich feathers illustrates. The cap would stylishly augment the wearer's own fashionable coif. This design is a precursor to the well-known wedding veil design from her summer 1938 collection, which featured blue sequined decoration that flowed down the wearer's back in imitation of hair.
- Artist
- Elsa Schiaparelli
- Date
- summer 1935
- Medium
- silk, feathers
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Costume Institute
- Credit line
- Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Arturo and Paul Peralta-Ramos, 1955
