Miuccia Prada in 1998 and Else Schiaparelli in 1934, via FashionEtc.com

Can New York’s Metropolitan Museum Costume Exhibit possibly top the success of their recently-closed Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibit in 2012? The McQueen show was seen by 661,509 visitors.

It will be ladies night at next year’s Met gala, with the Costume Exhibit’s Harold Koda and Andrew Bolton turning their attention to two highly-influential women in the fashion world: Miuccia Prada and Elsa Schiaparelli.

Elsa Schiaparelli

Elsa Schiaparelli’s house closed in 1954 over her inability to adapt to post WWII fashion, unlike her great rival Coco Chanel. Schiaparelli’s surrealism-influenced designs included collaborations with Salvador Dali and other surrealist artists, including Jean Cocteau.

The idiosyncratic Schiaparelli was born into an Italian family of wealth and nobility. Believing that privilege stifled her creativity, Schiaparelli moved first to New York City and then Paris to pursue her love of art and career as a surrealist couturier.

As a young woman Elsa Schiaparelli studied philosophy at the University of Rome, where she published a book of sensual poems that shocked her family. The unconventional young woman then went on a hunger strike to protest being sent to a nunnery.

Miuccia Prada

Les Artistes

Timeless Topics

Shakespeare’s Been Reading the News NYTimes

“The topic of powerful men who can’t control their sexual behavior is unfortunately terribly current,” said Oskar Eustis, artistic director of New York Public Theater’s annual Shakespeare in the Park gala at Central Park’s Delacorte Theater, which previewed this summer’s production of All’s Well That Ends Well’.

“There’s a moral compass in males that hasn’t evolved since Shakespeare’s time. Some men are willing to take great risks to get their way sexually,” Oskar Eustis continued.

Sublime as the production was, the poetry kept being upstaged by the real world’s vulgarity. “France is a dog hole,” one actor said, bringing to mind Dominique Strauss-Kahn. “Those girls of Italy, take heed of them,” said another, conjuring thoughts of Berlusconi. And “A young man married is a man that’s marred” (everyone else).

People

Northern Lights

Inside the Home of Swedish Designer Marie Olsson Nylander KNSTRCT

Swedish Interior Designer Marie Olsson Nylander is giving the world an intimate peek inside her family home. The shabby 1970?s villa humbly sits in the town of Arild, Sweden, where it hasn’t see any love for 30 years, until now. When Nylander and her husband Bill first laid their eyes on the unkempt villa they weren’t convinced it was going to be theirs, yet they couldn’t get the home out of their heads. The Nylander’s returned three times to view the villa which caused them to slowly catch feelings for the old home; a purchase came shortly after. More images @ KNSTRCT

Swedish Home of Designer Marie Olsson Nylander

Heidi’s Big Baubles

Heidi Klum Launches Costume Jewelry with QVC WWD

Heidi Klum’s new QVC collection called ‘Wildlife by Heidi Klum’ will kick off with Heidi on a Sept. 8 QVC special Fashion’s Night Out broadcast from Manhattan, supporting New York fashion week.

“All of the pieces are statement pieces. The only reason to wear costume jewelry is to wear something large — something you can’t do with real jewelry because it would be too expensive,” explained Klum, who added she takes design inspiration from her trips to flea markets and the many collectibles and knickknacks that fill her L.A. home.