Elsa Schiaparelli

Italian fashion designer from an aristocratic background who created the house of Schiaparelli in Paris in 1927, which she managed from the 1930s to the 1950s. Starting with knitwear, Schiaparelli's designs celebrated Surrealism and eccentric fashions. Her collections were famous for unconventional and artistic themes like the human body, insects, or trompe-l'œil, and for the use of bright colors like her "shocking pink".

She opened her first shop in 1928, five years later she had eight boutiques in Paris and one in London. Her fashion style was colourful, glittering, "surrealist" and she had great success collaborating with stars like Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau. She was one of the first to design not only garments but also accessories: gloves, scarves, jewellery, watches and swimming costumes, and she also brought the zip into haute couture in 1936. After the beginning of the Second World War, she had to leave Paris and emigrate to New York. In 1945 she returned to Paris and found that her fashion style was no longer in vogue. Minimalism was "in", the simplicity of Coco Chanel's creations was considered "chic".

In 1954, Schiaparelli published her autobiography Shocking Life and then lived out a comfortable retirement between her Paris apartment and house in Tunisia. She died in Paris on 13 November 1973 at the age of 83.