Significantly intertwined with fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli's imagery are the watercolor paintings Marcel Vertès created for her beauty campaigns. Schiaparelli's fragrances Shocking, Sleeping, and Le Roy Soleil were brought to life through Vertès' bold brush strokes, pulsating candied colors, and a glittering cast of characters including harlequins and gamines.
The ads showcase Schiaparelli’s perfume bottles and lipsticks, but with a playful wink and often having the perfume taking on a humanoid form. And the beauty campaigns weren't the only time artist Marcel Vertès and Schiaparelli collaborated: Vertès acted as costume and set designer for the film Moulin Rouge (1952), bringing in Schiaparelli for star Zsa Zsa Gabor's gowns.
Marcel Vertès for Elsa Schiaparelli
Photo by bottlesandscents on eBay
Vintage Perfume Spotlight & Review: Shocking (1937)
I bought a 1mL sample of Shocking from The Perfumed Court. When I opened the vial, notes of warm honey and powdery florals with an animalistic undercurrent unfurled. Shocking's scent evokes a different era: it conjures up images of women from the 1930s-1940s and the worlds they inhabited. Becoming acquainted with the scents that were popular at the time brought me a step closer to understanding the era in which this fragrance was created.
Left: Mae West Right: Shocking Perfume via Maison Schiaparelli
Behind the Bottle Design
As Elsa Schiaparelli designed costumes for Mae West in Every Day's a Holiday (1937), seeing West's measurements translated onto a dressmaker's mannequin provided her with the catalyst for Shocking's bottle. Commissioning surrealist multimedia artist Leonor Fini to bring the image to life, the final perfume bottle included a measuring tape around the mannequin's neck and a bouquet of glass flowers at the neck.
Left: Shocking scented Powder & Lipstick Advertisement Right: Schiaparelli Lipstick via Lombrail Teucquam
Further fragrances joined the perfume line, including Sleeping, housed in a candlestick flacon, and Le Roy Soleil, inspired by the "sun king" Louis XIV with a Salvador Dali-designed bottle. A treasure trove of ephemera followed: scented lipsticks, compacts with heart-shaped powder puffs, and solid perfumes inside necklace pendants. All of these were encased in boxes decorated with motifs like Elsa's signature shade of "Shocking" pink, arrows, and black lace.
Great article! So glad yer still posting and still blogging! Keep it up! I wanna see your outfits these days as well! Sending much love.
ReplyDeleteYou are too kind, thank you so much!
DeleteGreat article, it's so cool you got a little bit of the actual vintage perfume to try out! I absolutely adore all of these illustrations, their Surrealistic style really stood out from the other ads of the time. I would dearly love to get my hands on the Sleeping lipstick!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, thank you so much Hillary! You are so right about how special and singular the Surrealistic art style made these advertisements, I adore them! And oh my goodness, you saying that makes me feel like The Makeup Museum NEEDS some Schiaparelli lipsticks! <3 Thank you for your comment!
Delete