Bertrand Guyon Gives Us An Insight Into Schiaparelli's SS'18 Haute Couture Collection

A bouquet of spells, a constellation of stars, a fireworks display, her brutality, her arrogance, and her self-possession”: These were the analogies Yves Saint Laurent used when attempting to qualify the incomparable Elsa Schiaparelli, who rarely dabbled in the literal. Schiaparelli’s eponymous fashion house closed in 1954 and, today, she is perhaps better known to the public as Coco Chanel’s lifelong rival. Her signatures like the “shocking pink” colour or the “lobster dress” are better known to everyone who have followed her journey so far. Back in the roaring ’20s and ’30s, she was considered to be the reigning monarch of women’s fashion.

Making of Schiaparelli's SS'18 haute couture collection

Taking forward her legacy and making her work seem credible is Bertrand Guyon, the current creative director of the Schiaparelli brand. “As far as I can remember as a child, I had always wanted to work in fashion. That passion was born when I was about five or six years old,” he says, talking about his innate love for clothes. When he was appointed as the creative director of the maison back in 2015, no one knew him as a frontrunner in the fashion arena. “Joining Schiaparelli has been something totally unexpected. To be offered such an amazing opportunity is simply something you cannot turn down,” he says, talking about his appointment. “It is a dream for any designer, especially for me, who has never looked for it. I feel extremely privileged,” he adds. But fret not there; Guyon has had a pretty impressive CV, having previously worked with design houses like Christian Lacroix and Valentino. “I had the chance to be able to work with Maria Grazia [Chiuri] and Pierpaolo [Piccioli] from their very first collection on,” he says, talking about the former design duo at Valentino (Maria Grazia Chiuri left the Valentino brand in 2016 to work at Dior). “It has been something quite incredible and interesting as I got to know both of them on a personal level,” he says. “Everything at Valentino was rigorous, like in a real institution and the hierarchy and the organisation were very precise, both inherited from Mr Valentino’s time,” he adds. Incorporating his previous experiences at the house, Guyon has built up his reputation by creating his own language for Schiaparelli.

Making of Schiaparelli's SS'18 haute couture collection

When Elsa Schiaparelli collaborated with Surrealist artist Salvador Dali to create the famous “shoe-hat”, the prominent hue of pink on the top of the fedora became her signature. She described hot pink as “life-giving, like all the light and the birds and the fish in the world put together, a colour of China and Peru but not of the West.” So, we ask Guyon how he incorporates the iconic shade into his collections? To that he replies, “When I joined Schiaparelli, I took the decision to always have one look in the collection in shocking pink. Now, after six collections, I can only acknowledge the fact that women seem to relate to it, from actresses to clients.” Each of his collections takes over three months to make. There are moodboards (five or six of them) which serve as a guideline as well as reference during the entire creative process—from sketches, materials selection to fittings and more.

Making of Schiaparelli's SS'18 haute couture collection

Bertrand Guyon takes us through his SS’18 haute couture collection—as a part of this exclusive feature for 

BRIDES TODAY. “The main inspiration for the collection comes from Elsa’s famous Pagan Collection of 1938 and the discovery of a collaboration she did with Jean-Paul Sartre’s play The Devil and The Good Lord, directed by Louis Jouvet, for which she created the costumes,” he says. There is knitwear made of nylon yarn, intertwined with Swarovski beads. Guyon’s team has found a female textile artisan who has artfully mastered the art of knitting a ruffled dress where each nylon stitch includes a multifaceted crystal bead in a jet-black colour. This season, the team has also experimented with raw materials that one might find in a “grocery shop.” Case in point: plastic bags are cut into thin strips and braided with raffia and marabou feathers to form a precious couture cape. “The ordinary becomes extraordinary, which is very Schiaparelli,” Guyon adds, about the collection. Talking about haute couture, specifically Parisian haute couture, which is at the heart of the Schiaparelli maison, he tells us, “Couture is almost a form of resilience and we strive for the best in terms of quality and savoir-faire. Everything is hand-made in our ateliers and by specific Parisian specialist houses Lesage (for embroidery) and Lemarié (for feathers).” Social shutterbugs have dominated the catwalks during fashion week and notebooks have been replaced by smartphones.

Making of Schiaparelli's SS'18 haute couture collection

So, we ask Guyon his opinion on social media and its effect on fashion. To that he replies, “People’s perception about fashion today and how they access it, has changed drastically. Fashion is not about trends and the way you create it is more or less exactly the same as, say, when Elsa Schiaparelli was creating her collections. Some things have evolved like technology, the pace of collections, etc. But, the intrinsic way to create fashion is still about sketching, selecting fabrics and colours, doing fittings, etc.” He adds, “The world of difference comes from social media, Internet, and an immediate and global access to fashion. Fashion is lot more visible than ever and the consequence of this is a side effect, i.e. the showmanship of someone making clothes overshadows the way garments are actually created.” Disagreeing with us about his clientele, he says, “Being an haute couture house, millennials are not exactly our customers.” Staying away from the conundrums of fame and taking respite from the strenuous deadlines, Bertrand tells us that he finds “peace” when he travels to Spain and stays at his beach house. Turbo-charged and refreshed, after having spent time in the environs of the Spanish Riviera, he might get inspired by “nature” and inspiration comes to him “instinctively and organically.”

Making of Schiaparelli's SS'18 haute couture collection

Further adding to the bridal DNA of BRIDES TODAY, Guyon tells us, “What I am trying to do at Schiaparelli is to come up with an alternative take on wedding gowns or dresses. I try to explore new territories with a white section instead of the “classical” wedding dress that is closing the show and allows us to show that white does not necessarily mean wedding or that we have only one single wedding gown a season.” Expressing his thoughts about a bride-to-be, he says, “I think modern brides should open up to more variety and creativity in their wedding dress selections. Between the colour, the length, the volume, and the details, there are so many ways one can choose the perfect dress.” Talking about his favourite dress in the SS’18 collection, he says, “My favourite dress from this season’s collection is a mother-of-pearl embroidered hooded cape-dress, which was inspired by a swatch from the 1940 Schiaparelli Haute Couture fall collection I saw at Maison Lesage. My idea was to create a wedding dress in ivory crepe with a cape and a hood with embroidered irises. It also echoes the Elizabethan era mixed with the Renaissance that are also part of the inspirations of the season.” We ask Guyon his thoughts on India as an inspiration for the Schiaparelli brand, to which he responds by saying, “Elsa Schiaparelli was inspired by India after meeting the Princess of Kapurthala in the 1930s and her first haute couture collection of 1935 included sari-gowns fusing glamorous gowns and saris.” He adds by concluding, “We would love to meet our very first Indian clients, thanks to this story!” Here’s hoping they do.

Watch Schiaparelli's SS'18 haute couture show here -

All images: Courtesy