(Organza and silk dress by Gianni Versace, from Salome at Teatro alla Scala in 1987, directed by Robert Wilson)
In the mid 1920s, Diaghiev commissioned French cherry bomb Coco Chanel as la costumière for the premiere of ballet Le Train Bleu, an ode to contemporary fashion with libretto by Jean Cocteau as danced by Les Ballets Russes, which sparked untapped collaborations between fashion houses and theaters. After Coco's success, French designers such as Lanvin, Balmain, Dior, and Yves Saint Laurent followed.
On the Italian end, Elsa Schiaparelli slashed and burned her way through opera and theater, and from her provenance came the Italian designers such as Giorgio Armani, Emanuel Ungaro, Alberta Ferretti, Valentino, and Antonio Marras who crossed into the arts.
Traveling exhibition "Il Teatro alla Moda -- Theater in Fashion" explores the Italian narrative between fashion and opera and highlights costumes created by iconic Italian fashion designers since 1980. The collection, which catalogs more than 80 costumes made by 11 Italian fashion designers for opera, ballet, and theater, made its American premiere in Los Angeles last month and has been extended until December 18.
Sponsored by the yet-unopened Beverly Hills performance space, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, the collection is in a temporary gallery space on the ground floor of the new MGM Place in Los Angeles.
The work of Gianni Versace is especially stunning. There's just no one else who does like he could.
Photos are from here.
(Roberto Capucci dress in georgette for Anna Caterina Antonacci in 1991 for a Tokyo concert)
(Gianni Versace from Stravinsky's The Firebird from the Royal Opera House in 1991)
(Valentino from 1994's Washington National Opera The Dream of Valentino)
(Roberto Capucci's taffeta and silk dress for 1986 Norma at Arena di Verona directed by Pier Luigi Pizzi)
(Valentino from 1994's Washington National Opera The Dream of Valentino)
(Gianni Versace for Kiri Te Kanawa in a 1990 Capriccio and the San Francisco Opera, directed by John Cox)