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The Jewish Chronicle

Trompe l'oeil is the trick of the trade for spring

The trend for trompe l’oeil is definitely having a moment.

February 4, 2010 11:59

ByJan Shure, Jan Shure

3 min read

It is probably not going to seize the fashion world by its illusory lapels this season or any other — but the trend for trompe l’oeil is definitely having a moment. Last season, Dolce & Gabanna, Alexander McQueen, Antonio Berardi and Vivienne Westwood used trompe l’oeil in their collections.This spring it is popping up at all points on the fashion spectrum, from the high street to Chanel, whose ludicrously priced stick-on tattoos reinforce the trend.

Meaning, literally, “trick the eye”, trompe l’oeil was introduced to the fashion world by Elsa Schiaparelli, the Paris couturier who, in 1934, was decreed the most influential woman in fashion by Time magazine.

Unlike her contemporary Coco Chanel, she is now largely unheard of outside the fashion industry, but the Italian-born Schiaparelli was a true revolutionary. She was the first couturier to blend art and fashion and to bring an element of playfulness into an arena that was then — and, let’s face it, still is now — endowed with far more seriousness than it deserves.

Schiaparelli was an innovator. Apart from trompe l’oeil, she introduced shoulder pads, culottes, coloured zips, decorative buttons, the wedge shoe and the runway fashion show, complete with music and boyish models.