Surrealism Fashion: Origins, Icons, Modern Revival, and the Future of Fantasy

Surrealism is a revolutionary art movement born out of the ruins of World War I that occurred in the 1920s. It was directed by Andre Breton and it aimed at tapping into the power of the unconscious mind where there is no distinction between a dream and reality. This was a radical philosophy that eventually had its ideal counterpart in fashion.

The fantasy, rebellion and straightforward escapism were canvas-ed on the clothing. The designers such as Elsa Schiaparelli and artists such as Salvador Dalai transformed ordinary clothes into pieces of wearable art. This heritage is rekindled nowadays by such visionaries as Daniel Roseberry and Jonathan Anderson, and it seems its timelessness. We are going to examine the development of surrealism fashion to rebel against the present-day expression.

The Fashion Photography of Surrealism Origins

Andre Breton found official support in surrealism through his 1924 manifesto. It was a reply to the atrocities of war, the defiance of logic and reason which most people believed had failed the society. Rather, it was an advocate of the irrational, the bizarre and the subconscious mind.

Other artists such as Salvador Dalian, Rene Magritte and Man ray did their works with dream logic, distorted bodies and surprise humor. Other industries of creativity were soon drawn to this new visual language. Fashion magazines especially realized that these artistic concepts could be made into statements that can be put on.

This was the jump on canvas to clothes. Fashion is an art similar to self-expression. Surrealism provided an opportunity to break the norm and delve deeper into identity. Early surrealism fashion incorporated clothing in order to render the impossible real on the human body.

Elsa Schiaparelli: The Surrealist Lady of fashion

When Coco Chanel was creating minimalist chic, her competitor Elsa Schiaparelli was blazing a trail of the much more radical path. Schiaparelli accepted absurdity and wit so that fashion became a fantasy playground. She was made the most important representative of early surrealism fashion.

Her talent was enhanced by her works with surrealists, the most notable ones being Salvador Dalai and Jean Cocteau. These collaborations created the most iconic and bold fashion. They established her as a designer that approached clothing not as a utilitarian purpose, but as an erotic one.

Approval of iconic Schiaparelli Creations

The most renowned works by Schiaparelli are still a strong source of surrealism thought.

• The Lobster Dress: This is a white silk lobster dress with a large painted lobster on it by Salvador Dalai. Wallis Simpson even popularized it in a Vogue photo shoot, introducing the mainstream to surrealism.
• The Shoe Hat: A hat in the shape of a high heeled shoe, yet another Dalio collaboration. It disingenuously parodied the role and shape of a quotidian artifact.
• The Skeleton Dress: This black dress was padded and quilted to give the appearance of the ribcage of a human being making the anatomy of the wearer an external ornament.
• The Tear Dress: Printed in a design reminiscent of a ripped flesh, this dress experimented with the themes of pain and vulnerability with outrageous fashion, challenging the conventional view of beauty.

The collaborations of The power of Dalai in Surrealism Fashion

The collaboration of Salvador Dalies and Elsa Schiaparelli was the pinnacle of the surrealism style of fashion. The subconscious symbols that Dalí was obsessed with, melting clocks, drawers, and lobsters, gave Schiaparelli a rich vocabulary to use in her designs and make fabric a dream world.

Their art put the concept of the super-reality of Dalí into physical entities. They used common things and fixed them to the unusual situations making the viewer view the world in a different way. This cooperation characterized the aesthetic of the movement, along with its ability to have both commercial and critical success.

Surrealism Fashion and important symbols and motifs

Surrealist fashion also created a visual language which was a direct offshoot of surrealism. These themes were meant to provoke, entertain and delve into the secret psychological conditions. They transformed the body of the wearer into a canvas to think subconsciously and feel.

Common Surrealist Imagery

• Disembodied Body Parts: Eyes, lips, hands and noses were common and hence used in garments and accessories and were not contained in their proper context. This made a disturbing and interesting impact, challenging our perception of the human body.
• Trompe-l’oeil: French deceive the eye, this is a painting technique where an artist creates visual effects that are executed in a realistic manner. Examples will be the printed tears on a dress, or a belt buckle that appears to be a pair of hands.
• Odd Pairings: Surrealists designers enjoyed putting things out of place such as a shoe on the head or a telephone on a handbag. This futility and sarcasm defied rational anticipations.

These symbols did not only serve as decoration. They served as an outlet of suppressed passions and feelings. A dress that was covered with drawers, like in the example, implied secrets that are yet to be uncovered. This provided surrealism fashion with a psychological quality it could have hardly rivaled.

Surrealistic Fashion in the Post War era: Mugler to Mcqueen

The influence of surrealism declined after its first period, but still it did not disappear. As a new generation of avant-garde designers, its themes were resurrected in the 1980s and 90s. Thierry Mugler, Vivienne Westwood, and Alexander Mcqueen incorporated surrealism to develop shock, drama and social comment.

Designs created by Thierry Mugler were characterized by exaggerated forms where women were remodeled as creatures of the planet such as insects or robots. Alexander Mcqueen was darker in his approach. In 1997, he created his controversial collection, La Poupée (The Doll) collection based on the deformed dolls of artist Hans Bellmer.

This subsequent movement of surrealism fashion was able to use provocative imagery to express intricate themes. It challenged the standards of beauty, gender roles and the balance between human beings and technology. The interest turned from humorous absurdity to a more confrontational and provocative style.

The Surrealism Fashion Revival in the Modern Day

Surrealism fashion is making a huge resurgence today. First among them is Daniel Roseberry who is the creative director of Schiaparelli. He has also skillfully revived the history of the house by using gold-dipped body parts, exaggerated anatomy, and gorgeous illusion gowns which are both vintage and futuristic.

Surrealism has been also adopted with teasing mind benders by Jonathan Anderson at Loewe. His collections were represented by balloon dresses, shoes with broken eggs as heels, pixelated clothes which resemble the ones that have emerged out of a video game. Such outfits contain the initial wit of the movement.

The pop culture has contributed so much towards this revival. The modern surrealism fashion has turned celebrities on the red carpet to be ambassadors. Doja Cat’s head-to-toe red crystal look at a Schiaparelli show and Kylie Jenner’s lion head gown are prime examples of its viral power.

Surrealism on the Home Decor and Design Beyond the Runway

Surrealism can be traced in clothing as well as in much more. It has taken a warm house in the interior design that changes the ordinary space into dream-like. Designers are incorporating surreal themes into furniture, lighting, and decorations to make it hard to distinguish between functionality and art.

Things such as lamps and a bowler hat used as a shade, a chair with a leg that does not match other legs start to add humor and fantasy to the home. Having lived years of minimalist supremacy, individuals are demanding character and playfulness. Surreal objects, as art consultant Carmen Ellis points out, are a daily dose of the strange.

This trend is a sign of comfort and escape in the personal space. Like surrealism fashion gives us an escape to the real world, surrealist home decorations can also enable us to create our own fantasy worlds, and thus in our houses we can find refuge in our imagination.

Feminist Reconsideration of Surrealism Fashion

As it glorifies its creativity, it is worth examining surrealism fashion critically. The original movement was male dominated and its art tended to objectify the female body where women were taken as muses or objects of fragmented desire.

This tricky legacy is still discussed. Contemporary designs, such as the SS19 show of Thom Browne with masked and tied-up models have also been controversial due to their apparent reprise of these themes of female confinement. It brings about artistic intent and artistic impact.

Nonetheless, surrealist images are currently being re-appropriated by a number of female designers and wearers in the name of empowerment. They apply its disruptive force to break the male gaze and admire the female form by their own principles. It is aimed to maintain freedom of art and to disapprove of old-fashioned, misogynistic implications.

The Psychology of Surrealism Fashion Revival

What is so appealing about surrealism fashion at this moment? The solution is in our group psychology. We are in the age of uncertainty, the epoch of political fragmentation, financial fear, and the unresolved trauma of a world-threatening pandemic. Surrealism is an effective escapism.

The revival of surrealism, according to the words of the editor Kerry Pieri, is connected with the strong urge to flee in fantasy. In the face of reality, it is a relief to dress in something fantastical and out of this world. It is one way of taking back some sense of control and creativity in the world that sometimes seems to be out of control.

Such a shift to fantasy is a familiar trend in fashion history. Suffering causes the hemline to go up and down, yet the creativity will always prevail. Wearing surrealism fashion lets us dress our dreams on our sleeves giving a happy and subversive answer to difficult times.

The Future of Surrealism Fashion: Artificial Intelligence and Technology

The future direction of surrealism fashion is online. Technology is also increasing its dreamlike potential to an exalting degree. CGI models, virtual couture, and augmented reality (AR) fashion shows already stretch the limits of the possible, and create experiences that are defiant of the laws of physics.

The digital clothes can be made to float, morph or glow, and it has enabled the designers to be more creative than what can be achieved using physical materials. This virtual surrealism allows individuals to define themselves within virtual worlds such as the metaverse and create avatars to represent their most extreme fantasies.

Moreover, a new partner is appearing in the form of artificial intelligence (AI). AI can help designers to create surreal shapes, forms, and ideas by combining the human imagination with machine intelligence. Stitched silk and rendered pixels will become the future of surrealism fashion and pave the way to the new worlds of self-expression.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Surrealism in Fashion

Surrealism fashion, as any other daring artistic movement, has its strong and weak sides. Its influence on the industry is two-sided and it has inspired and controversial effects. Knowing the two makes it possible to appreciate its contribution to the wider cultural scene.

Pros

• Fosters Innovation: It will help designers and wearers to think beyond trends and think about individuality and creativity.
• Bridges Art and Design: It transforms clothes into a wearable art raising the cultural worth of fashion.
• Offers Emotional Storytelling: It gives the opportunity to express not only complicated emotions or psychological states but also comment on the social situation with the help of the clothing.

Cons

• Possibility of Controversy: It may cause discussions on the objectification and the male gaze due to the application of the human form.
• Can Be Unrealistic: Most surrealist articles are designed to the runway or the red carpet and cannot be worn in real life.
• May Strange Everyday Audiences: It is bizarre and avant-garde and this aspect can be seen as weird or not accessible by certain consumers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is surrealism fashion?

Surrealism fashion refers to a type of clothing and design that was inspired by the Surrealist movement of art in the 1920s. It applies strange images, optical illusions, and the unexpected contrast to shake the rational and dive into the depth of the subconscious mind, making the garments a form of wearable art.

Who was the first pioneer of surrealism in fashion?

Elsa Schiaparelli has been regarded as the father of surrealism in fashion. During the 1930s, one of the defining moments in the movement with the impact on the fashion industry was her work with such artists as Salvador Dalali, which resulted in such iconic works as the Lobster Dress and the Shoe Hat.

Why does surrealism become a trend once again?

Surrealism has become a new trend as a way of escaping contemporary fears such as financial instability or social polarization. Its playful, creative, and dreamlike features provide an emotional outlet and a means to have a sense of creativity and uniqueness in difficult moments.

What are known examples of surrealist fashion?

Well known are the Lobster Dress, Skeleton Dress and Shoe Hat of Elsa Schiaparelli. More recent ones include Schiaparelli designs by Daniel Roseberry with gilded anatomy and balloon dresses and pixelated clothes by Jonathan Anderson at Loewe.

What is the place of Schiaparelli in contemporary surrealism?

The House of Schiaparelli remains the most prominent surrealism under the leadership of Daniel Roseberry. The brand employs body parts that are molded into gold, trompe-l-oeil anatomy, and dramatic silhouettes to celebrate the legacy of its founder and take it to the next stage.

Conclusion

Since its subversive beginning in a 1920s Parisian scene, surrealism fashion has been one of the strongest tools of creativity and expression of one’s self. It started as a means of protesting against a world that is fast-chained with reason and has gone on to become a language of fantasy, wit, and deep emotional insight around the world. It has been used by designers such as Elsa Schiaparelli, Alexander Mcqueen and most recently Daniel Roseberry, to question our understanding of beauty, gender and reality as a whole.

Nowadays, its re-emergence is not by chance. Surrealism is the back door in a world that can so easily become chaotic and restrictive, which is the opportunity to dream, to play, to make the previously repressed parts of us visible. It reminds us that fashion is not merely merely a piece of clothing, but a narrative that we are going to share about ourselves and what we desire to become. Stitched in silk or made in pixels, surrealism fashion reveals that half the story is in reality.

Which are your best examples of surrealism fashion? Write your comments below, and subscribe to our newsletter to get more in-depth into the world of style and art.