Schiaparelli’s lobster (1937) Rome-born designer Elsa Schiaparelli’s haute couture salons during the ’30s may look like a sedate affair compared to today’s shows, but her Paris base at 21 Place Vendôme is still a hallowed spot. This was the decade during which Schiaparelli collaborated with Salvador Dalí to create the lobster dress, famously worn by Wallis Simpson in in 1937. While to modern audiences, the pairing of an artist and fashion designer is a relatively regular occurrence, back then it was groundbreaking.
Greta Garbo, no less, was a fan. Karl Lagerfeld’s first Chanel show (1983) Karl Lagerfeld presided over Chanel as creative director for more than three decades, remaining one of the world’s most revered (and recognisable) figures in fashion right up until his death in 2019. In 1983, when the designer was first charged with bringing the house into the modern era, he admitted he initially found couture a .
While Lagerfeld’s Chanel would quickly come to epitomise what audiences around the world love about couture – quintessential fashion escapism – back in the early ’80s, Karl’s Chanel couture debut (which focused on the spirit of Chanel’s ’20s and ’30s oeuvre) was met with more than a few raised eyebrows from critics. All that glitters is Gianni (1995) While once upon a time, couture presentations were a polite shopping expedition for well-heeled upper-class women, Gianni Versace’s high-voltage shows at Atelier Versace in the ’90s .
