As it's Wimbledon weekend, here's a very short newsletter about the sporty side of sartorial Surrealism.
From the 1930s, Elsa Schiaparelli — the couturier known for her Surrealist-centric designs and collaborations with Salvador Dalí, Leonor Fini, and Meret Oppenheim — started diversifying her fashions. She added the first evening dress to her collection (a wraparound low V neckline, both front and back, tied at the side) and made sportswear a pivotal part of the ready-to-wear items on sale to the public.
Schiap already had a vast sportswear collection under her belt, designing ski outfits, swimmers, ‘sunbathers,’ and from 1929, resort wear for the silk manufacturers Cheney Brothers. According to the curator Dilys Blum, ‘the collection included clothes for the active sportswoman, be she aviatrix, tennis player, skier, swimmer, or just a sunbather on the beach.’
Functionality did not mean a lack of panache, and Schiap's synonymous flourishes, techniques, and tools were still present. Ever the innovator, a rubberised wool and silk mixture was used as raincoat material, while patent-leather trim was added to a coarse natural linen aviation costume. Various contrasts, another hallmark of the signature Schiaparelli style, ranged from the starkness of black and white to black with brown and orange with green. Ski outfits had metal “slide closings” or zips/zippers rather than the more traditional fastenings.
Schiap’s innovation with zips/zippers was to leave them visible on the design rather than concealed, ensuring they served a decorative and functional purpose. The stylish nature of the clothing did not come at the expense of comfort; ease of movement in the designs was of utmost importance. Schiap’s foresight was also on fire: a cotton tennis costume included a divided skirt and a separate top fastened by a tab between the legs, an early, maybe one of the first, examples of a bodysuit.
Her signature knitted bowknot sweaters were so coveted they would be one of Schiap's most copied designs. The Gimbel Brothers began selling the geometric and knitted designs in 1931 for $7.99, and the department store’s window displays emphasised their appropriateness as golfing attire. A couple of years prior, in 1929, the U.S. women's golf champion Glenna Collett, the record holder for winning the most amateur championships, had accepted her trophy at the Oakland Hills Country Club in Birmingham, Michigan, wearing a version of Schiaparelli's famous bowknot sweater.
Beachwear (or resort wear and leisurewear) was also a popular seller for ladies of leisure or to pack for holidays. Beach pyjamas were all the rage and a staple in savvy fashion wardrobes of the late 1920s and early 1930s, ‘either for lounging on the beach or for lunching at the casino, with or without a bathing suit underneath.’ Schiap’s first designs included one-piece knitted pyjamas with ribbing around the waist, often with a matching jacket.
By 1932, although women had started substituting Schiap's popular wraparound apron dress for general beachwear, Schiaparelli continued to favour the less formal and more comfortable leisurewear. There was no need for foundation garments like girdles and garters, movements were freer, and comfort was key. One of Schiap’s most notorious/controversial/popular designs was the divided skirt. For several seasons, many French designs had been working with various iterations of the divided skirt, or culotte, and by spring 1927, they were proving extremely popular. The British press, however, was not impressed.
1931 Schiap shocked the press when she wore the divided skirt while buying tweeds in London. The same year, Spanish tennis champion Lili de Alvarez was heavily criticised when she chose to wear a silk tennis outfit Schiap had designed for her — a silk divided skirt dress with a detachable tunic — at the North London Tennis Tournament. Once again, the press was not impressed. ‘The question in everyone's mind was whether she would be allowed to wear it at Wimbledon,’ writes Blum. ‘She did—and lost.’