Beachcombing, like ice cream trucks and barbecues, is a summer weekend tradition. Depending on where you are this year, shell collecting and stone skipping might be off-limits due to the pandemic. If that’s the case, fashion might just be your ticket to a sunny virtual gateway. We can’t promise the facsimile, complete with waves, that was the set for Chanel’s spring 2019 ready-to-wear show, but if you’re in the market for shells, we’ve got you covered.
Marine motifs, from Elsa Schiaparelli’s famous lobster dress of 1937 (a collaboration with Salvador Dalí) to striped marinière sweaters (Jean Paul Gaultier’s uniform), are fashion evergreens. Pearls haven’t been just for debs for a long time; designers like Karl Lagerfeld and Jonathan Anderson have used them as luxurious embellishments on garments, sometimes achieving the effect of clothing as jewelry.
Donatella Versace recently reintroduced the starfish and shell prints her brother Gianni did back in 1991. Alexander McQueen and Fausto Puglisi used the real things—as in razor clam and scallop shells, respectively—for looks that delivered drama. So maybe you can’t sit in them; don’t forget Venus made quite the splash when she appeared standing on her shell.
