An Early Case of Designer Revival: The Splendorous Fashion of Serge Lepage for Schiaparelli, 1977-1979

 

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Four years after the death of Elsa Schiaparelli in 1973, Serge Lepage became the new designer of the house. Rather than merely hiring a new designer, the house of Schiaparelli, owned by Guido de Sassoli at the time, started a collaboration with Serge Lepage. The first Lepage-Schiaparelli collection was shown in January 1977 and the last two years later, in January 1979. In total, there were five haute couture collections and, at least, two ready-to-wear collections called 'atelier' collections. The talk analyzes both fashion designs and marketing strategies to provide insights into how new players engaged with the founder's legacy. Moreover, it questions the concept of hybridity between a brand and a designer as formulated by the sociologist Frédéric Godart.

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Talk given at the PhD seminar at the Centre Franco-Norvégien en Sciences Humaines et Sociales, Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris.

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September 29, 2015.