Elsa Schiaparelli : A Biography

During the glittering Twenties and Thirties, Elsa Schiaparelli was the undisputed queen of fashion.

Everyone who was anyone, from Vivien Leigh to the Duchess of Windsor, entered her doors in Paris and wore whatever she told them.

One of the most extraordinary fashion designers of the twentieth century, Elsa Schiaparelli was an integral figure in the artistic movement of the times. Her collaborations with artists such as Man Ray, Salvador Dal, Jean Cocteau, and Alberto Giacometti elevated the field of women's clothing design into the realm of art.

Her story is one of pluck, determination, and talent with scandal as spice. As the daughter of minor Italian nobility whose disastrous first marriage to a Theosophist caused near penury, she transformed herself into a designer of great imagination and, along with Coco Chanel, her greatest rival, she was one of the few female figures in the field at that time.