ART ON HER SLEEVE: Two similar buttons designed by Alberto Giacometti for Elsa Schiaparelli have outstripped estimates, selling for 28,160 pounds and 33,280 pounds at Bonhams on Tuesday.
Both buttons were part of the Modern Decorative Art & Design sale in Knightsbridge, London and had a presale estimate of 5,000 pounds to 8,000 pounds. Both showcase the sensual artwork “Femme aux Bras Levés,” which depicts a naked woman raising her arms in the air.
Schiaparelli used them for a coat she made for Marlene Dietrich, which features gilt buttons at the breast.
There are only five other versions of the buttons known to be in existence. One is at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, while another is owned by the Comité Giacometti in Paris.
Three of them are still attached to the original Dietrich coat, which is on display at the German Cinema museum in Berlin.
Giacometti and Schiaparelli were introduced to one another by the interior designer Jean-Michel Frank in the early 1930s, and would become lifelong friends.
Elsa Schiaparelli in Paris.
Fairchild Archive/Penske Media/PMC
Giacometti is known to have designed numerous pieces for Schiaparelli, both for her ateliers and her private home. He made smaller items around 1936, primarily variations on figures with raised arms and on mythological subjects, such as sphinxes. According to Bonhams, few were ever cast, and those that were, were produced in small numbers.
Throughout her career, Schiaparelli sought to bridge fashion and art, frequently collaborating with, or commissioning pieces, including rings, brooches and buttons, from several of her artist friends. She famously worked with Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dalí, Leonor Fini and Man Ray, for her trompe-l’oeil and surrealist designs.
Those buttons are just a taster of what’s to come next year, when the V&A mounts…