All Elsa Schiaparelli, in 5 famous quotes

Famous inventor of shocking pink, lover of Surrealism, bitter rival of Coco Chanel. She was the first designer to create monothematic fashion collections and in 1934 she was also the first female couturier to appear on the cover of the Time: Elsa Schiaparelli represents an emblematic chapter in the history of European fashion. She was born in Rome on 10 September 1890 from a Neapolitan mother and a Turin father, she initially dreamed of becoming a poet. But her future was already written, elsewhere, between Paris and New York. And among those fabrics that made her clothes authentic thoughts and places of the soul. Let’s go over the story of Elsa Schiaparelli in five famous quotes.

Is called Arethusa the collection of poems that Elsa Schiaparelli published in 1911 after studying philosophy. A collection that did not win the approval of her family, who always remained hostile to her dream of becoming a poet. After being sent to a convent in German-speaking Switzerland, in 1913 she Elsa left for the United Kingdom where she found employment in an orphanage.

In London, however, Elsa met and fell in love with Count William de Wendt de Kerlor: after the wedding in 2014, she moved with him to Nice, to then arrive in New York in 1916. Maria Luisa Yvonne Radha, their first and only daughter, was born in 1920, two years before Elsa divorced William de Wendt de Kerlor. Determined to return to Europe with her daughter, it is in this phase that Elsa begins to have the first contacts with antique dealers and art collectors: the commercial pretext – selling pieces of art to raise money – would perhaps have paved the way for the passion that the designer would later translate into fashion concepts. Elsa will be able to return to Paris thanks to the painter Francis Picabia and her wife Gaby, who offered her hospitality (her daughter, however, was sent to a boarding school in Lausanne).

Paris allowed Elsa to breathe deeply the fashion of the time. She took her first steps as a pupil of Paul Poiret, then in 1925 she became a stylist for Maison Lambal. 1927 was her breakthrough year, when Elsa began working independently in her apartment in rue de Seine. Nothing extremely complicated, just a strong focus on knitwear. Nevertheless, its patterned pullovers trompe l’oeil they were so successful that she moved production to rue de la Paixwhere Schiaparelli was born – Pour le sport. His stylistic figure was reaching an initial stage of maturation, in which sportswear (but also pajamas and swimsuits) met the craftsmanship of haute couture.

In 1932, the next step: the maison, which became Schiaparelli – Pour le sport, pour la ville, pour le soiracquired new spaces – eight ateliers in total to house the more than eight hundred employees in rue de la Paix in Paris (they would double that in 1935, moving again to number 21 Place Vendôme). The following year, it was the turn of the boutique in London and the offices in New York. In the Parisian boutique on Place Vendôme – frequented by stars and socialite of the time such Wallis Simpson, Ginger Rogers, Marlene Dietrich and Gala Dalí – instead the first clothes arrived ready-to-wear–porter.

Shocking pink, also called: Schiaparelli pink. Elsa was the creator of this unique and distinctive nuance. It was introduced for the first time in 1937, thanks to the perfume packaging Shocking!and later became a (chromatic) signature that the designer used on several occasions also in her collections, primarily on the famous cape Phoebus.

With the German occupation of Paris in 1940, Elsa Schiaparelli returned to New York: the outbreak of war also had a profound impact on the fashion industry of the time. She returned to Paris after the end of the war, [1945sawthefirstpost-warcollection. However, after being Coco Chanel’s biggest rival in the 1920s, 1948 put the linear aesthetics with which Schiaparelli conceived female silhouettes against the wall: Christian Dior presented the New Look, a breath of fresh air and joy for the eyes of women who sought a profound sense of novelty in fashion after the torpor of war. Then came the rise of Cristóbal Balenciaga, who introduced modernism into haute couture: the scene had become extremely competitive.

Everything Gianni Versace, in 7 unforgettable sentences

Emblematic name of 20th century fashion, Gianni Versace was a designer “of his time” and of what is yet to come. His artistic legacy, celebrated today in the creative vision of his sister Donatella, lives on in these 7 precious maxims

Schiaparelli, faced with economic difficulties, declared bankruptcy in 1954. At the age of eighty-three, Elsa died in her sleep in the French capital on November 13, 1973. Today the Schiaparelli maison is directed by Daniel Roseberry, since 2019, after the Italian entrepreneur Diego Della Valle took over the brand in 2010 to relaunch the brand. And Elsa’s artistic legacy continues…