Elsa Schiaparelli - 1940 Dinner Dress

An historical recreation made for the Janet Arnold - Patterns of Fashion Award 2016. In order for me to recreate this dinner dress as accurately as possible I worked from Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 2 and I visited the original dress, which is housed in the Victoria & Albert Museum's archives at the Clothworkers' Centre in Olympia, London.

 

During the visit I took detailed photographs, notes, sketches and measurements. After scaling up the pattern from Arnold's book I used the information gathered during the visit to ensure details such as stitches and bead placement were as accurate as possible. The result was a beautiful and striking replica of an iconic Schiaparelli dress.