SCHIAPARELLI, ERDEM'S GEMS AND OTHER FASHION STORIES

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

In my relatively short time working in fashion, one thing (of the many things) I have learnt is that the industry can really pick its moments when it comes to potentially huge news stories. There's none of the bang-in-the-middle-of-the-working-day punctuality of, say, the Leveson report. Take the frenzied rumour that Christopher Kane would be moving to Balenciaga, that all kicked off bright and early on a Saturday morning while confirmation of Raf Simons appointment to Dior was announced on a Bank Holiday Monday. I really wouldn't be surprised if some major development weren't revealed while we're sitting down for the Queen's Speech on Christmas Day. In fact in the time it has taken me to write that paragraph, it has been announced that J.W Anderson will be the first designer to work with Versus on their new approach of collaborating with young talent. Meanwhile, in the middle of last night, Cathy Horyn published a piece which suggested Alexander Wang is set to take over at Balenciaga when Nicolas Ghesquière leaves in a few days time. The FashEd's comment on that snippet is "So Alexander Wang would give up his own successful business in NYC to be a salaried employee of PPR in Paris to design Balenciaga?".

Schiaparelli pink (image from vogue.com)

Another ongoing fashion rumour is that LFW favourite Erdem Moralioglu might be getting ready to take up the reins at the newly revived Schiaparelli. Diego Della Valle, who owns the label, has pushed back the relaunch from January to June which means there are only a couple of months at the most before a designer needs to be appointed. Unlike Balenciaga, where whichever designer is chosen will have the immediate legacy of Ghesquière to contend with, as well as the codes of Cristóbal Balenciaga himself, Schiaparelli has been a dormant label since 1954. As well as creating madly fun and beautiful clothes, Elsa Schiaparelli employed her surrealist aesthetic with jewellery. Her Uncle was astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli and she would apparently sit with him and study the stars as a child, maybe looking at all those sparkles in the sky prompted her to branch into making shiny things of her own? Her pieces were kinds of sophisticated satire on conventional jewels, using the usual materials but crafting them into vaguely unnerving pieces. The bug necklace below, for example, was meant to create the illusion of the wearer being inundated by hundreds of insects.

Schiaparelli Lobster brooch (image via debutanteclothing.com)

Schiaparelli floating insect necklace (image from brooklynmuseum.org)

The lovely Erdem, perhaps in preparation for his Schiaparelli role if we allow ourselves to get utterly carried away with mere hearsay, has created a capsule accessories collection for online retailer MyTheresa. To be even more tenuous, the range includes chunky crystal earrings and necklaces not so very dissimilar to Schiaparelli's mid-century designs. Is it just me or do you see an element of bird in the earrings? The range only launched a couple of days ago and some pieces have sold out already. Whether you're into speculating on fashion comings and goings or not, there's no denying that a Christmas stocking full of Erdem x MyTheresa would go down a treat.