Elsa Schiaparelli

She transformed the face of fashion between the World Wars with a hefty dose of creativity, a little help from her Surrealist friends and no formal training. So what was it that the world loved about Elsa Schiaparelli?

Elsa was born in Italy to a wealthy family and was not brought up to believe that women should earn a living. Having refused to marry a stream of parental-approved suitors, Elsa became engaged to Count William de Wendt de Kerlot the day after they met and, despite her family’s disapproval, married him. When she divorced him six years later, after a turbulent marriage, she had a small daughter and was living in the USA. Now struggling for money, a friend helped her move to Paris where her fashion career began.

Legend has it that designer Paul Poiret kick-started her trajectory to fashion stardom. The story goes that after one of his fashion shows, Elsa was trying on one of his coats and the designer suggested that she buy it. She replied that she couldn’t afford it and, anyway, would never have the occasion to wear it. ‘A woman like you,’ Poiret said, ‘can wear anything, anywhere. And don’t worry about the money.’ So began a long lasting friendship that encouraged Schiaparelli to start designing.

She is best known these days for her show-stopping gowns, but when Schiaparelli originally conceived her label it was with the idea of bringing American-style sportswear to Europe. In a country where the traditional fashion houses produced intricately designed, and painstakingly constructed items, she wanted to produce simple, practical separates suitable for the working woman. She began with simple knitted pieces and soon became known for sweaters featuring trompe l’oeil patterns, attracting a following on both sides of the Atlantic that included Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn and Joan Crawford.

In 1933 Schiaparelli branched out into evening wear, and here she had a chance to really let her imagination run wild. An artist at heart, her glamorous gowns and the accessories to accompany them were seen as incredibly shocking at the time and synonymous with the Surrealist movement. She was a champion of collaborations, enlisting the help of her friends to come up with ever-more-daring designs; Man Ray, Salvador Dali, Cecil Beaton and Picasso all had a hand in her collections. Her most memorable pieces? The Lobster dress which featured a Dali-painted lobster on the skirt; the Shoe Hat, a headpiece in the shape of an upturned shoe; her black gloves with gold nails attached; and her signature shade of shocking pink which she used throughout all her collections.

Between the World Wars Schiaparelli was fashion’s darling, rivalling Chanel in the popularity stakes and helping to change the face of fashion. Not only did she sow the seeds of modern collections, placing the emphasis on creativity rather than traditional construction, she helped to inject a sense of fun and playfulness into an industry that took itself very seriously. Sadly, during the Second World War, her label went into a decline as she spent the war years in the States. When she returned, the face of fashion had changed dramatically and her outrageous aesthetic no longer fit the public mood. She closed her fashion house in 1954 and died in 1974 but her style has never been forgotten and continues to influence fashion today.

By Emma Sells