ELYSIAN Women Inspiring Women
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Two models pose at Helen Yarmak’s fashion presentation during New York Fashion Week at The Crown Building, New York. FASHIONSTOCK.COM / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
ELYSIAN
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60 The City in
VOLUME 9 • ISSUE 4 • THE HOLIDAY & FASHION ISSUE / ÉDITION VACANCES ET MODE • HIVER 2023/24
Bette Davis
Winter
The splendor of New York City. BY KATE MCMULLEN
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BY LAURIE BOGART WILES
The History of New York Fashion Week
112
BY BRENNA KEHEW SCULLEY
Timeless
126
The Magnificent Jewelry of Piaget. BY SAMANTHA PAIGE
Inspiring Women Amy Green page 128 Dr. Christina Rahm page 140 INTERVIEWED BY KAREN FLOYD
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18 fashion&history They called her the “Queen of Fashion. BY CORA WALDEN
architecture&interiors Organized & Elevated: Luxury closets fit for a queen. BY CHRISTY NIELSON
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58 shopping
Judith Leiber Couture. BY SINDIE FITZGERALD-RANKIN
holiday&tradition
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174
184
The Nutcracker: A ballerina’s journey. BY HELEN ARDEN
food&dining The queen of couture chocolate. BY NORAH LAWLOR
fashion&culture Merci Beaucoup. BY PEARL LUSTRE
fashion&influence Van Lear of Palm Beach. BY KATHLEEN PARKER
194 philanthropy
Bridging style & social responsibility. BY CAROLINE RYAN
back story
Team ELYSIAN and the ELYSIAN Circle celebrate an unforgettable Autumn magzine launch in New York City.
on the cover
Philanthropist and former Sportscaster Amy Green photographed by Michael Paniccia. Hair and makeup by Daniel Rabenou. Earrings (Red Carpet Collection set in 18k white Fairmined-certified gold featuring 17.11-carats of diamonds) and necklace (Haute Joaillerie Collection set in 18k white gold featuring 14-carats of heart-shaped emeralds and 43.77-carats of diamonds) by Chopard. Chopard.com
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travel&adventure Enchantment in the Alps. BY MARCY DUBROFF
publisher
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o p e r at i o n s
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& i m pa c t
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Helen Arden, Marcy Dubroff, Sindie Fitzgerald-Rankin, Norah Lawlor, Pearl Lustre, Kate McMullen, Christy Nielson Samantha Paige, Kathleen Parker, Caroline Ryan, Brenna Kehew Sculley, Cora Walden, Laurie Bogart Wiles copy editors
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w w w . r e a d e ly s i a n . c o m ELYSIAN Magazine is published four times per year by Palladian Publications LLC., 113 W. Main St., Spartanburg, SC 29306. For subscription information, call 864-342-6500. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.
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ELYSIAN STRIVES TO EXCITE THE IMAGINATION …TO BE ASPIRATIONAL AND EXPERIENTIAL. MAY ELYSIAN BE THE VOICE AND NOT THE ECHO.” — KAREN FLOYD
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Karen Floyd Publisher
PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL PANICCIA
ELYSIAN’s eighth year draws to the end, this Winter issue celebrates those women that dare, dream, risk, and imagine what many others deem impossible. We believe that every woman has her own story, value and ability to make a difference. Who would have thought years ago that the ELYSIAN story, our successes and hardships, would represent the idea that together we can create, connect and change the world? ELYSIAN did not happen overnight; it took years in the making. As a twenty-four-year-old prosecutor of crimes against women and children, I recognized early in my career what would be a lifelong passion; to give a voice to the silent and to share stories that inspire. As my fortieth birthday approached, the second half of my life would be dedicated to fulfilling that vision. Anecdotal stories that encourage others to do and be more, was the “starting line “of this quiet journey. Nine years ago, we formally launched the print version of ELYSIAN, a folio size, luxury publication . . . culminating in February 2015 on a drizzly evening in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Our community came together celebrating the milestone by closing Main Street and allowing us to literally unroll a twenty foot banner of the first issue of ELYSIAN’s cover, scrolling downward from the top of our historic building’s facade. Suffice to say, only a few . . . with incredible imaginations I might add . . . would ever have dreamed we could create the ELYSIAN ecosystem. Today the print/publication serves as our memory, our gold standard, beacon of light and example of the excellence we seek. As the years passed and the publication grew, it was a complete surprise when we were acknowledged as Ozzie and Eddies winners for both best design and editorial content. If we could create a magazine from literally nothing but an idea, what opportunities might await? One word, one thought, one idea at a time, the ELYSIAN ecosystem was built . . . It was not easy. We innovated, failed, struggled and eventually eked out concepts that we grew over time. When COVID arrived and print distribution was limited, we pivoted, expanded our outreach and created a weekly newsletter that now boasts 6 million sends monthly. Simultaneously we focused on retooling our ELYSIAN Connect App that is currently piloting AI through our concept, “Ask E”. From the very first publication, philanthropy was central to our ethos. Led by Kimberli Scott the Director of ELYSIAN Impact, today over 14M has been raised to benefit children, women, pets, environment and service. This year, ELYSIAN’s signature philanthropic event CatWalk FurBaby was launched. The project was activated two years earlier from an interview I had with Cathy Bissell, the CEO of Bissell Family Pet Foundation. As she spoke about the challenges animal rescues face, I took the liberty of mentioning an idea that had been percolating in my mind for years called CatWalk FurBaby. Cathy is a visionary capable of seeing what others might not. It was her ability to grasp the concept and agree to partner that ignited our creative engine. For readers that are not aware, CatWalk FurBaby kicks off New York Fashion Week by raising money and awareness for rescues worldwide. The idea is simple, our inspiring women choose a rescue, model and designer. The model and dog then walk the runway at iconic Sony Hall, with prize money going back to the winning recues. And every participating rescue wins by receiving much needed grant money. But imagine if you will . . . it was an idea . . . we had no inspiring women/sponsors, no pet rescues, no designers, no models, or animals . . . When Consuela Vanderbilt joined the movement, she opened the portfolio of designers through SOHO Muse. The final piece of the puzzle and perhaps the most critical was Dr. Christina Rahm. Much like Cathy, Christina is instinctual, self-actualized and understood immediately the challenges, risks and opportunities. Through both her companies, DRC Ventures and the Root Brand, the equation was complete. She simultaneously launched an environmental line, Merci Dupre Clothier, carrying the second half of the production and accomplishing an ELYSIAN philanthropic dream, benefiting animals worldwide. It was a privilege to narrate our unique journey from the footage both the ELYSIAN team and the production partner Runway 7 captured. The story is a true David and Goliath tale. Originating from Main Street in a small southern town to kicking off New York City Fashion Week on Broadway, this small and mighty group of women made a difference in animal rescue welfare. We were humbled beyond words and so very appreciative to have this accomplishment recognized by winning the Best Film Documentary at the New York City International Fashion Film Festival. While the documentary is granular, the production sets the stage and expectations for the second annual CatWak FurBaby scheduled for September 2024, again kicking off New York Fashion Week. Whether through our award-winning magazine, robust newsletter, App integrating AI, or recent film accolades, ELYSIAN’s intention is quite simple—to inspire. In this complex and messy world ELYSIAN shows the “what if ” to the seeker. In this season of gratitude, we thank you . . . and believe that by sharing our very own story of overcoming, persevering and conquering, you too might feel empowered, encouraged and hopeful. I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday. May every dream you can imagine become a reality. Thank you for taking the journey. With much love,
D C SERIES N274, 2023
mixed media on canvas
by Marta Estrems
EVEY FINE ART / PALM BEACH artevey.com
fashion&history
They Called Her the
“Queen of ” Fashion BY CORA WALDEN
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Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli (1890 - 1973), March 6th, 1936. PHOTOGRAPH BY SASHA/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
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S HE WAS PRACTICAL, constructing the first built-in bra for bathing suits. SHE WAS SENSIBLE, pairing jackets with evening gowns to keep out the night chill—another first. SHE WAS OUTRAGEOUS—applying feathers, sequins, embroidery, and oversized buttons to her creations with utter abandon; and SHE WAS WHIMSICAL, appliqueing fabric lobsters, hands, bees, music clefts, and playing cards on the sheaths of her dresses. Demure was not in her vocabulary or her aesthetic. She was ELSA SCHIAPARELLI, a creative visionary whose wild imagination was only bound by the horizon.
Paris,1927.
French designer Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (18831971) has designed tailored, elegant fashion for society’s elite since she opened her atelier, the House of Chanel, at 160 Boulevard Malesherbes, in 1909. Exploding onto the scene is Italian expatriate Elsa Schiaparelli, 37, who has designed a sweater knitted with a trompe-l’oeil bow that, overnight, has become all the rage. These two women became lifelong rivals. Both emerged as
originators of modern European haute couture. This is extraordinary considering the diverse backgrounds from which they came. Though the Chanel brand is worth a staggering $15 billion today, it was the innovative, daring Elsa Schiaparelli who was crowned “Queen of Fashion.” Chanel was born into poverty, in rural France, in a charity hospital, to a laundress and itinerant street vendor. Elsa was born into a life of privilege, in Rome, at the Palazzo Corsini to an aristocratic Neapolitan family. Their beginnings would determine their objectives in life, in love, and business. For Chanel, access to high society and money was the measure of success; Elsa, who wanted for nothing, considered creativity and self-expression through fashion as art the measure of hers. Chanel, who was seven years Elsa’s senior, had been experiencing a decade-long dry spell when Elsa entered the fashion scene. Chanel loathed her, and called her “that woman who makes dresses,” and one story has it that Elsa’s gown caught fire when Chanel pushed her into a fireplace during a party. The two remained lifelong enemies. “What one has to understand about her was, that she had a very, very unpromising facade,” author Meryle Secrest wrote in her book, Elsa Schiaparelli: A Biography. “She really didn’t crack a smile. She really didn’t show a frown. She was impassive on the surface. But underneath were all kinds of emotional needs. She had been starving for love and affection and encouragement. And underneath all of this is someone who’s daring, has tremendous intellectual ability, and who has a kind of wonderful, crazy talent.”
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ELSA DRAPING FABRIC ON THE BODY: “A dress has no life of its own unless it is worn,” Elsa wrote in her autobiography, “and as soon as this happens another personality takes over from you and animates it, or tries to, glorifies or destroys it, or makes it into a song of beauty. More often it becomes an indifferent object, or even a pitiful caricature of what you wanted it to be—a dream, an expression.” PHOTOGRAPH BY KEYSTONE-FRANCE/GAMMA-KEYSTONE VIA GETTY IMAGES
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22 • hiver 2023/24 • édition vacances et mode • readelysian.com Elsa Schiaparelli antique jewellery on model—necklace, earrings, and head piece. VICTOR WATTS / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
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E
LSA LUISA MARIA SCHIAPARELLI was the daughter of Giuseppa Maria de Dominicis, a Neapolitan aristocrat, and Celestino Schiaparelli, a noted Piedmontese scholar and Dean of the University of Rome. Despite her many advantages growing up, she was cloistered as a child and spent a good deal of time alone. Craving love and attention, she frequently lashed out, becoming resentful, obstinate, and uncontrollable. Elsa herself discloses one telling incident in her autobiography, Shocking Life. One evening, her parents hosted a formal dinner party at home. Elsa was told she was too young to join the adults. Instead, she hid under the table and unscrewed a large jar filled with fleas. The evening ended abruptly. Growing up, Elsa studied under her uncle, the noted astronomer, Giovanni Schiaparelli, discoverer of the Martian canals, and his and Celestino’s cousin, Ernesto Schiaparelli, the noted Egyptologist who discovered the tomb of Nefertari. Enthralled by the universe and ancient history, Elsa’s imagination took flight. She poured her time and energy into writing poetry, particularly a volume of poems entitled Arethusa, inspired by a water nymph in ancient Greek mythology. Living, as it were, in a fantasy world troubled her parents, so they sent Elsa away to a convent boarding school in Switzerland, hoping the nuns would purge her of her nature. Instead, she rebelled under their strict supervision by staging a hunger strike and was sent home, where she would study philosophy at the University of Rome. In 1914, at the age of 23, on the recommendation of a family friend, Elsa took a post taking care of a family of orphaned children at a large country house in England. Deciding this sort of life was not for her, she soon fled to Paris. There she was ardently pursued by a wealthy Russian nobleman, who was known to her parents and who pressured her to marry. But Elsa felt nothing for him and again she bolted—this time, for London. There, while attending a lecture on a new occult movement called theosophy, she met a charismatic man named Wilhelm de Wendt—one of the many and varied names the Polish con man called himself while variously passing himself off as a criminal psychologist, detective, lecturer, and “The World-Famous Dr. W. D. Kerlor,” an alleged psychic and fortune-teller with a talent for defrauding gullible, wealthy widows. Elsa, who had long been fascinated by psychic phenomena, was fascinated by de Wendt. The day after the lecture, they became engaged and married. For the next three years, Elsa accompanied her husband all over Europe, facilitating his fraudulent schemes in Cannes, Nice, and Monte Carlo, until 1916, when de Kerlor was caught and convicted of fraud, and deported to America. There the couple rented an apartment on Central Park West
and continued to live off of Elsa’s plentiful dowry. De Kerlor opened an office nearby for his new business, the “Bureau of Psychology,” however his scheme was reported to the Bureau of Investigation (forefather of the FBI.) Further interrogation revealed him to be a Communist revolutionary and German sympathizer, and to avoid prosecution, he abandoned Elsa shortly after she gave birth, in 1920, to her first and only child. She named her daughter Maria Luisa Yvonne Radha, called her “Gogo” and legally changed her surname to ‘Schiaparelli’ to thwart any effort her estranged husband might have attempted to gain legal custody of the child. When Gogo was 18 months old, she contracted polio, and in 1922, mother and daughter moved to Paris, after the death of Elsa’s lover, opera singer Mario Laurenti, who died unexpectedly at the age of 32. (Elsa and de Kerlor were legally divorced in 1924 and four years later, he was murdered in Mexico.) She would never remarry. In Paris, thanks to the generous allowance provided by her family, she let an expensive and fashionable apartment and hired a cook, a maid, and servants fitting to her family’s social position. “In Paris, life for me was rather dull,” she wrote, “with a great deal of solitude. Real youth and gaiety had not yet been mine. I was to know both, curiously enough, in later years.” Through her close friend, Gabrièle “Gaby” Buffet-Picabia, wife of Dada/Surrealist artist Francis Picabia—whom she had met on board ship on their transatlantic crossing in 1916—she embarked on a business venture that failed. Her whole life would change, however, when Gaby introduced Elsa to French mast couturier Paul Poiret. “Schiap,” as she was called by her friends, had been making her clothes and wearing them to parties. Poiret saw hidden talent. With no training or skills in pattern-making or tailoring, Poiret—whom she would call “a generous mentor, dear friend”—took Elsa under his wing and encouraged her to start her own business. Elsa wanted to be financially independent from her family and she was encouraged. She started simply—with a sweater. The Armenian refugees she hired to knit for her had developed a unique, double-layered stitch around which Elsa designed a trompe l’oeil bowknot motif that was knitted into the sweater itself. An instant “must have” on both sides of the Atlantic, expanded into a collection of knitwear, followed by her “pour le Sport” collection of sportswear, ski wear, bathing suits, and linen dresses. In 1927, she opened an atelier on the rue de l’Université to fill orders and expand her knit line, and in 1931, stepped into the realm of eveningwear with designs that catapulted her into the stratosphere of high fashion.
T
he 1930s was the first decade of emancipation for women. Drawn to the Paris circle of Dada and Surrealist artists, Elsa socialized and collaborated with Jean Cocteau, Leonor Fini, Alberto Giacometti, Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dalí, who would become her lover, and photographer Man Ray, with whom she had a long personal and professional relationship. “Once or twice, I had thought that instead of painting or sculpture, both of which I did fairly well, I could invent dresses or costumes.
The “Lobster Dress” (1937), a modest silk evening dress featuring a giant lobster painted by Salvador Dalí. Sometime collaborator, sometime lover, though married, he was 14 years Schiaparelli’s junior. Their combined talents would combust when together; they designed gowns, shoes, hats, and jewelry. One gown, was even created as a political statement against the Spanish Civil War. Elsa would predecease Dali by 16 years. PHOTOGRAPH BY DOMINIQUE MAÎTRE / WWD / PENSKE MEDIA VIA GETTY IMAGES
Opposite: Elsa Schiaparelli’s Fashion Salon, 21 Place Vendome, Paris, gouache on paper by Ludwig Bemelmans. IMAGE COURTESY HERITAGE AUCTIONS / HA.COM
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‘’Wedding Dress and Train, ‘’ 2015, designed by Sabine Getty with Schiaparelli Paris at the ‘’In Daring Fashion: Dali and Schiaparelli’’ exhibition at the Dali Museum, 100 Dali Blvd., St. Petersburg, Russia.Wednesday, The exhibition highlights the collaborations and friendships between Dali and couture designer, Elsa Schiaparelli. PHOTOGRAPH BY ZUMA PRESS INC / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
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Dress designing, incidentally, is to me not a profession but an art. I found that it was a most difficult and unsatisfying art because as soon as a dress is born it has already become a thing of the past. As often as not too many elements are required to allow one to realize the actual vision one had in mind. The interpretation of a dress, the means of making it, and the surprising way in which some materials react—all these factors, no matter how good an interpreter you have, invariably reserve a slight if not bitter disappointment for you. In a way, it is even worse if you are satisfied, because once you have created it the dress no longer belongs to you. A dress cannot just hang like a painting on the wall, or like a book remain intact and live a long and sheltered life.” Couture, she reasoned, is wearable art. Elsa experimented with fabrics (one dress she designed for legendary Vogue editor Diana Vreeland was made of cellophane, and when Vreeland took it to the dry cleaner, it melted.) She was the first to take functional elements and design garments with visible zippers and large buttons. She designed the wrap dress that decades later would bring fame to Diane Von Furstenberg. She designed dresses with broad shoulders, heart-shaped lines, and her collections had themes: “Stop Look and Listen” in 1935, “Music” and “Paris 1937” in 1937, “Zodiac,” “Pagan,” and “Circus” in 1938, and “Commedia dell’arte” in 1939. But her most famous collaboration was with Spanish Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí on a white evening gown with a sexually suggestive, giant red lobster painted down the full skirt, from waist to floor-length hem. It was a “must have” for the Duchess of Windsor, who posed provocatively in it on her honeymoon. “Schiaparelli and Dalí adored each other because they were both daring and risk-takers,” biographer Meryle Secrest wrote. “And Dalí’s theme of the lobster . . . comes up over and over again in his symbolism. He has many symbols, but the lobster is really sort of sexual in theme, I suppose. And at some point or other, they both, he and Elsa, concocted this idea that the lobster should be a dress.”
By 1932,
Elsa was employing 400 seamstresses who produced 8,000 garments a year and had to move to a larger atelier, at 4 rue de la Paix. Ready-to-made orders streamed in, thanks to enormously successful commercial arrangements with American department stores and specialty shops. Two years later her production exceeded 10,000 garments a year and in 1935, she relocated yet again, this time to the prestigious heart of Paris, at 21 Place Vendôme, the distinguished, 98room, 17th-century Hôtel de Fontpertuis, which she converted into her salon and work studios. In 1936, Elsa launched her first perfume, “Salut des Schiaparelli,” and then “Shocking,” after her signature color, shocking pink. The bottle was created in the shape of a curvaceous woman’s torso by her friend, Argentine-Italian Surrealist artist Leonor Fini, who was inspired when she saw the tailor’s dummy of one of Elsa’s best clients—Hollywood bombshell Mae West. She expanded her collections to include hats, furs, accessories, and—coveted today by collectors, magnificent costume jewelry. She catered to a devoted, exclusive private clientele that included the new, notorious Duchess of Windsor, and likewise designed for silver screen goddesses Greta Garbo, Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, and Marlene Dietrich. She was the first designer to use velvets, rayon, and Lurex. She created the wrap dress and—though credited to Chanel—the “little black dress,” and designed the first see-through raincoat. And she named her trademark color, a vibrant rose, “shocking pink.” Elsa had forged strong ties in the United States during her six years living there and as the storm clouds of World War Two gathered upon Europe’s horizon, she decided to leave Paris and return to New York in 1940. The Paris atelier remained open, throughout the war, under the capable hands of her young apprentice—an up-and-coming designer by the name of Hubert de Givenchy. While in New York, Elsa devoted her time to the war effort as a nurse’s aide at Bellevue Hospital. After the War, she returned to Paris to resume business but by now, a younger generation of designers led by Cristobal Balenciaga and Christian Dior had taken over the fashion limelight. Dior proclaimed his style the “New Look” even though the new designers’ collections were far more conventional than Elsa’s. Nonetheless, the new generation in fashion overtook Elsa’s creations in popularity and sales. Unwilling to adapt to changes, the House of Schiaparelli declared bankruptcy in 1954 and Elsa retired to the home she had built in Tunisia. She died in 1975 at the age of 83. But her label did not. In 2007, Italian businessman Diego Della Valle acquired the Schiaparelli brand. Through a carefully constructed revival and hyper-exclusive business strategy under the direction of Marco Zanini, The House of Schiaparelli was nominated for a return to the most elite of elite trade associations, Le Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in January of 2014. Her vision and imagination now, as in her lifetime, are only bound by the horizon. ■ Elsa Schiaparelli dominated Paris couture in the 1930”s and became a star in the social and artistic firmament. She made her reputation through the unique ability to shock and surprise, ever mindful nonetheless of the golden rule of couture that invention must be underpinned by supreme quality and by an indisputable rightness of line and proportion. PHOTOGRAPH BY SCOTT HOUSTON / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
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