Elsa Schiaparelli and Marcel Vertes--a perfect combination

One of my favorite illustrators is Marcel Vertes, and I especially love his work for Schiaparelli perfumes.  Here are three of his ads that you will find in our shop:

  Harpers Bazaar

September 1945

Etsy Listing #70216138

Harpers Bazaar 

April 1945

Etsy Listing #70216224

 Vogue

April 1952

Etsy Listing # 71019728

Hungarian illustrator,  Marcel Vertes was born in Ujpest, near Budapest, Hungary.  He studied to become an aviation engineer, but instead turned to drawing and painting.  In the early 1920s, Vertes went to Paris, where he worked for the satirical magazine Rire, and for the Gazette Du Bon Ton.

Vertes was an outstanding painter, printmaker, illustrator and fashion designer.  His work was characterized by its economical use of line and color.  He moved to Paris during World War I, and established himself as one of the most important artistic figures of the 1920s; following the footsteps of Toulouse-Lautrec, Boutet, and Forain.  His work consisted mainly of portrayals and scenes of Paris street life, women, the circus, and cabaret acts.  Vertes went to school at the Academie Julian in Paris.
 

He became popular in France since the mid 1920s particularly for his lithographs, and illustrations.

Due to the impending World War II, Verte traveled to America where he lived and worked for some time.  His reputation as a great artist got him work as a book illustrator and costume and set designer for films, theater and musicals.  He worked briefly for Vanity Fair and Harper's Bazaar in New York before traveling to London to illustrate for Schiaparelli perfumes.  The collaboration between Vertes and Schiaparelli was an inspired one.  Verte's whimsical, and modern illustrations perfectly complimented Elsa Schiaparelli's avant-garde style and irreverent attitude.

Schiaparelli Bengale Chiffon Evening Dress Illustrated by Reynaldo Luza

Schiaparelli Bengale Chiffon Evening Dress

Illustrated by Reynaldo Luza

Harpers Bazaar

June 1935

Etsy Listing #66900928

Elsa Schiaparelli, the flamboyant fashion designer of the Art Deco period, is renowned for her fabulous eccentricity and innovation. She changed fashion and people's attitudes to it with her scandalous dresses and colourful personality. Her legacy of spectacular designs and an entirely innovative approach to fashion design has moulded contemporary fashion and inspired countless fashion designers, including Galliano, McQueen, Gaultier and Yves Saint Laurent. In short, Elsa Schiaparelli was the woman who shaped fashion as we know it today - creating the pattern for all dresses to come.

Reynaldo Luza (1893-1978), pre-eminent fashion artist, was born in Lima, Peru. He began training as an architect at the University of Louvain, Belgium, but returned to Peru at the outbreak of World War I, where he changed his studies from architecture to art. In 1918 he came to the United States, where he earned his living by contributing drawings to several fashion publications, principally VOGUE, HARPERS BAZAAR, and VANITY FAIR. In 1921 he joined HARPERS BAZAAR as the principal fashion artist, a position he was to hold for 27 years. He divided his time between New York, Paris and London, working closely with all of the leading fashion designers of the times--Poiret, Patou, Lelong, Paquin, Douillet, Doucet, Cheruit, Worth, Drecoll, Callot Soeurs, Redfern, Martial et Amand, Premet, Reboux, Chanel, Vionnet, Molyneaux, Schiaparelli, Hartnell, Steibel, and Balenciaga, among others. In 1940 Luza made New York his principal base, where, over the next few years, he continued his activities at Harpers as well as creating fabric and furniture designs, and the costumes for the movie "The Bridge of San Luis Rey".