Cocteau

Jean Cocteau (1889-1963). French artist and writer. He came into contact with the world of fashion through his friendship and collaboration with Elsa Schiaparelli, who applied his surrealist themes to the accessories she designed. In turn, he illustrated the designer’s styles in Harper’s Bazaar and other fashion magazines. On some of Schiaparelli’s creations, Cocteau’s drawings were embroidered by Franµoise Lesage. A female bust, with its head thrust back and loose hair, decorates an evening dress from 1937. The ambiguity created by the juxtaposition between the fictional embroidered character and the real person is shocking and provocative. Also from 1937 is a drawing on the back side of another evening dress: it shows two faces looking at each other, and, thanks to an optical effect, suggests the outline of a vase of flowers. In that same year, Cocteau produced for the dressmaker an eye-shaped brooch with a tear dropping from it, and the patterns for the Zicha Arches scarves.”