How To Pronounce These Designers' Names

CRAZYBUBBA

CRAZYBUBBA

Registered Guest
How To Pronounce These Designers\' Names

I'm meeting a big vintage customer next month and just realied that I don't know how to pronounce Balenciaga and Schiaparelli.

Could someone break down the pronunciation for me?
 
I've always said the first just as it looks. Schiaparelli is shap-rel-ee, I believe.

There was a site at one point that had all of these with clickable sound for learning. That's been a few hard drive crashes ago, so I don't know the address any more.
 
Well, this is how I pronounce them: ba-len'-see-aga (primary accent on "len," secondary on "see)" and shap-a-relli (the "a" in shap is probably anglicized as a "short flat" a, as in "at," but in Italian, it would be a softer a, almost like "shop," but not quite).

I don't know if my pronounciation of Schiaparelli is how most people say it (there's nobody I see on a regular basis with whom I discuss high vintage fashion--LOL!), but I believe it is the "linguistically" correct way.

Good luck with your visit!
 
I believe that Balenciaga is pronouced exactly as it looks with a "soft" "C".
bah-len-see-AH-gah

Schiaparelli is not pronounced the way it looks. I believe it is SKAP ar elli. with a hard SCH pronounced like a "K". I have also seen it written out Ski ah par elli but I have never heard it pronounced that way.

I am trying to verify this and will add to this post when I find it!

Linn
 
Linn, that would be very interesting to find out! I do not think I have ever actually heard anyone say "Schiaparelli" in person! I looked online to see if there were any pronounciation guides to it, and couldn't find any. I did see that Elsa was the great-niece of Giovanni, who discovered the canals on Mars. What an interesting family the Schiaparellis must have been!

(And you're right that the ci in Balenciaga is spelled "see" and not "cee." The writer is forgetting her basics....)
 
Agree with Linn on both - friends of Elsa used to refer to her as "the Skap" I believe...err, that's "The Schiap" but pronounced with a hard "sch". Certainly that's how I pronounce it and I've never been corrected.

Nicole
 
Ac ouple more for you:

Molyneux was pronounced 'Mollynukes' most people use the more French Mollynoo but that is wrong (according to Hardy Amies in his biography)

Mainbocher is also commonly pronounced in the French manner as Manbowshay but his real name was pronounced Mainbosher in the U.S., however, he took on the French pronounciation in the 1930s, so both are correct.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top