Elsa Schiaparelli Was the Queen of Surrealism—All About the Late Designer

Since reopening in 2012, the historic house of Schiaparelli has been behind some of the most memorable fashion moments of the 21st century: Bella Hadid’s gilded rib breastplate and Lady Gaga’s flouncy, brooch-bedecked inauguration dress to name a few. But before the French Maison became the buzzy, red carpet image-maker we know it today, it began as a tiny line launched nine decades ago in the Rue de l'Université apartment of an art-minded girl-about-Paris named Elsa Schiaparelli.

Although she originally aspired to be a poet (much to the chagrin of her parents) and was never formally trained in design, Schiaparelli had a real knack for dreaming up things women didn’t know they wanted to wear. She crafted hats shaped like elegant heels and actual heels adorned with all manner of sparkle and spangle; we can thank her for making vivid fuchsia, which she called “shocking pink,” a thing years before Valentino or Barbie hopped on the hue. That said, her ascent to the upper echelons of fashion was a remarkable one, especially in the post-WWI era: Despite the cultural norm for men to provide, she launched a business so successful and influential that it landed her on the cover of TIME magazine as the first female designer to ever earn the coveted spot. The accompanying article described her as “one of the arbiters of ultra-modern Haute Couture.”

Read more of Schiaparelli’s fascinating story ahead, where InStyle has gathered a crib sheet of key facts about her personal and professional life.

The Brand Is French, But the Woman Is Italian

In 1890, Elsa Luisa Maria Schiaparelli was born in Rome as the youngest of two girls. According to a 1930 New Yorker profile on the designer, Schiaparelli’s father was the dean at the University of Rome (where the designer would later study philosophy). Schiaparelli was christened at the iconic St. Peter’s Cathedral.

She Grew Up Rich

As the child of a Neapolitan aristocrat and successful scholar (her mother and father, respectively), Schiaparelli had an undeniable financial advantage when it came to pursuing her passions. “She was immensely talented, of course, but also well-connected and not overly concerned with making a profit,” says fashion historian, curator, and journalist Kimberly Chrisman Campbell. “Even after her divorce, she had an allowance from her family to fall back on, though she liked to claim poverty and rebelled against her ‘proper’ upbringing.” Said rebellion, of course, included a life chasing her many creative whims, such as writing poetry (after publishing a book of shockingly sensual verses, Arethusa, in 1911, her family sent her away to a Swiss convent as punishment) and, of course, making decorative, high-concept clothes.

She Moved to America Twice

During her doomed marriage to Swiss (who claimed to be Polish) “paranormal expert” Comte Willian de Wendt de Kerlor, Schiaparelli settled in New York City’s West Village neighborhood. It was there that she found odd jobs (at the movies in New Jersey, translations for importing houses), birthed her daughter Mariza (known informally as “Gogo”), and was ultimately left by her husband. Flanner reported that it was “one rainy night, walking in Patchen Place she found, miraculously, a twenty-dollar bill, at which omen her luck turned and she soon sailed for France.” Years later, under very different circumstances, Schiaparelli returned to New York from 1941 to 1945, keeping her couture house open abroad under trusted supervision.

Her Professional Success Started With a Sweater

Schiaparelli launched her label in 1927 with a hit: a hand-knit black and white pullover with a trompe l'oeil bow at the collar (both the color scheme and visual illusion would continue to be house signatures). A fan favorite amongst her well-heeled friends, this led to a larger line of sportswear—and, eventually, eight ateliers and hundreds of employees to produce it all.

Coco Chanel Was Her Biggest Rival

Although Chanel and Schiaparelli were both massively influential in fashion around the same time, they could not have more different sensibilities. Where Chanel was staid and elegant, Schiaparelli was playful and flamboyant. Chanel was traditionally trained as a seamstress and milliner; Schiaparelli improvised her craft on the job. And while Chanel was a penniless orphan, Schiaparelli was born into a financial safety net. “They were true rivals, personally and professionally,” says Chrisman Campbell. “Chanel called Schiaparelli ‘that Italian artist who makes clothes,’ and she didn’t mean it as a compliment—allegedly, she set Schiaparelli on fire at a party once.”

The Art World Had a Major Impact on Her Work

Best known for her surrealist garments—lobster motif dresses, separates with pockets that looked like desk drawers, jackets with 3D butterfly embellishment—Schiaparelli was constantly drawing ideas from and partnering with the biggest artists of her time. “Schiaparelli was not the first fashion designer to collaborate with modern artists, but she did it fearlessly, and with great beauty and humor,” says Chrisman Campbell. The designer’s first collaboration was with Russian-French writer Elsa Triolet in 1931 on an “Aspirin” necklace made of little blue beads meant to look like painkillers. But Sciaparelli’s most frequent partner-in-crime was her dear friend Salvador Dali. The very first piece they made together was a compact meant to look like a rotary phone dial.

The House Has a Long Legacy of Bold Perfume

While Schiaparelli is most often remembered for conceptualizing statement-making clothing, she also had a knack for putting out memorable perfumes. A few highlights include (but aren’t limited to): “S,” a fragrance named for her personal love of the letter; a trio of scents meant to be worn throughout the course of 24 hours called “Scaip” (for daytime), “Souci” (cocktail hour), and “Salut” (evening); and “Shocking,” sold in a bottle shaped like actress Mae West, who Schiaparelli often dressed for events. By 1947,  the category had become so big for her House that it opened its own perfume factory.

She Closed the Maison in 1954

Over the course of her 46 years in business, Schiaparelli dreamt up some of fashion’s most buzzed-about collections (including the 1935 “Stop, Look, and Listen” newspaper print range and 1938 “Circus” line-up), worked with legendary talent (both Pierre Cardin and Hubert de Givenchy passed through her Maison), and rubbed elbows with the crème de la crème of Europe’s creative class along the way. So it comes as little surprise at age 64 she decides to close Maison Schiaparelli’s operations to focus on documenting her twisty-turning journey for her memoir, Shocking Life. She died in her sleep 19 years later and the house she founded lay dormant until 2012 when it was revived by way of a special haute couture collection designed by Christian Lacroix. In 2019, American designer Daniel Rosenberry was hired as creative director and still holds the post today.

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