‘This season of cellophane everywhere’: The scintillating cellophane fashions of 1934

Abstract

In 1934, textiles woven with strips of glittering cellophane were the pinnacle of high fashion. This trend has been credited mainly to Elsa Schiaparelli, who worked closely with the French textile manufacturer, Colcombet, to produce some of the most notable textiles of the early 1930s. While Schiaparelli was undeniably prominent in the promotion of cellophane fashions, she was one of many designers utilizing textiles woven with slit cellulose film during this period. The cellophane fashions produced by Schiaparelli and her peers were startling in their modernity and emblematic of the ‘strange glamour’ worn by some of the best-dressed women of the early 1930s. Cellophane fashions were promoted by the French couturiers throughout 1934 and quickly embraced by the American fashion industry. However, despite this initial enthusiasm, the cellophane fashion trend soon subsided as the artistic and intellectual associations of cellophane fashions were replaced with those of practicality and thrift.