L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 30 L'Italo-Americano T h o u g h f a s h i o n industry's titan and alleged Nazi spy Coco Cha- nel dismissed her rival Elsa Schiaparelli as " t h a t I t a l i a n w h o m a k e s clothes," later couturiers rec- ognized the stylist as one of the most influential designers of the 20th century. Schiaparelli — also known as "Schiap"— crossed art styles and movements, and the result was remarkable beyond fashion. She was a maverick in her time, the manifestation of a strong per- sonality driving a humane, independent-minded artist and feminist. She was born 130 years ago, on September 10, 1890 at the elegant Palazzo Corsini in Trastevere, Rome, to a p r o m i n e n t f a m i l y o f Piedmontese intellectuals. His father Celestino was a professor of Arabic language a n d l i t e r a t u r e a t t h e University of Rome and head of Accademia dei Lincei L i b r a r y . E l s a ' s m o t h e r , G i u s e p p a M a r i a d e Dominicis, was a Neapolitan aristocrat who descended from the House of Medici. Elsa's uncle, Giovanni Schiaparelli, director of the Brera Observatory in Milan, was the first astronomer to observe a network of "canals" and "seas" on the surface of Mars. In 1877 he began map- ping the Martian features with the names we use today. His other interests in psychic phenomena influenced his n i e c e . B e s i d e s , E l s a ' s cousin Ernesto was a laud- ed Egyptologist and founder of the Egyptian Museum in Turin. E l s a p i o n e e r e d a v a n t - garde fashion ranging from knitwear and ready-to-wear to high-couture. Her designs were extravagant, innovative, and oneiric. As a kid, her mother would berate her for being different and homely looking, but the rebellious teenager had the d r e a m o f b e c o m i n g a n actress. That was unrealistic as the social position of the family could not allow her to have a career on stage, so she studied philosophy at the behest of the family, and kept her written poems a secret until 1911 when she had a book of sensual poetry pub- lished. The book, entitled Arethusa, attracted the ire of the family. "To the family, the book c a m e a s a b o m b s h e l l , " Schiaparelli's granddaughter M a r i s a B e r e n s o n , t h e American actress, and former top model, wrote in her book Elsa Schiaparelli's Private Album. "The newspapers got very busy. Extracts from the poems were reproduced all over Italy, even abroad. Every critic chose a different one. Schiap's father considered the whole thing a terrible dis- grace and would not read the book." A s a p u n i s h m e n t , t h e young Elsa was sent to a con- v e n t b o a r d i n g s c h o o l i n G e r m a n - s p e a k i n g Switzerland where she start- ed a hunger strike that con- vinced her parents to revoke their original decision. She wanted to be herself. To bloom she had to leave the past behind. Move to London and work as a nanny? So she did. One evening she attend- ed a lecture on theosophy at the Occult Club in Piccadilly. The speaker was William de Wendt de Kerlor, a con man who posed as a count and paranormal expert. Elsa was immediately charmed by him and they became engaged the next day. They married in the s u m m e r o f 1 9 1 4 , a w e e k before the outbreak of WWI. As the couple subsisted on her wedding dowry and bene- fited from a Schiaparelli's trust, enigmatic de Kerlor attempted to earn a living as a psychic practitioner but a year later he was deported from England for practicing fortune-telling. The couple r e t r e a t e d t o t h e s o u t h o f France, ready to emigrate to the US in 1916. New York City galvanized Elsa. Through Gaby Picabia, the ex-wife of French Dadaist painter Francis Picabia, she connected with Dada artists. Elsa joined the artis- t i c c i r c l e s o f G r e e n w i c h Village where she encoun- tered visionary artists Marcel D u c h a m p , M a n R a y , a n d Alfred Stieglitz who would later have a significant cre- ative impact on her work. In the meantime, Elsa's marriage turned out to be a disaster and De Kerlor left not long after the birth of their daughter in 1920. Elsa had to respond to difficult t i m e s a s t h e l i t t l e M a r i a Luisa, nicknamed "Gogo," was diagnosed with polio. A rich American friend convinced her to go to Paris to seek medical treatment and provided a free domicile. It was the year 1922. Gaby Picabia, back in Paris as well, introduced Elsa to the Dada artists who frequented Le Boeuf Sur le Toit, a cabaret in M o n t m a r t r e . T h e A n n é e s F o l l e s ( " c r a z y y e a r s " i n F r e n c h ) — t h e R o a r i n g Twenties — had just started. Elsa assisted American visual a r t i s t M a n R a y w i t h h i s D a d a m a g a z i n e S o c i é t é Anonyme. She felt an affinity with that provocative art. Surrealism was gradually emerging. For a while, the two art movements co-exist- ed in a continuum of shared energy. André Breton's first S u r r e a l i s t M a n i f e s t o appeared in 1924. Influenced by the psychoanalytic studies of Sigmund Freud, Surrealist artists tried to expand the mind's potential by reconcil- ing the contradictory states of dream and reality. Elsa was in tune with those doctrines. MARIELLA RADAELLI Elsa Schiaparelli portrait. Photo credit: Courtesy of Maison Schiaparelli Continued to page 32 Happy Birthday, Schiap! The forceful fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE

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