Shocking Life

Shocking Life

<I> “She knew everyone from Paris to Hollywood, collaborated with the Surrealists, and left her indelible mark on the world of fashion.” —Vogue<BR><BR> “She slapped Paris. She smacked it. She tortured it. She bewitched it. And it fell madly in love with her.”</I>— Yves Saint Laurent<BR><BR> <I>“A dress from Schiaparelli ranks like a modern canvas.”</I>—Janet Flanner, <I>The New Yorker</I><BR><BR>Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973) was one of the leading fashion designers of the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s. Her fascinating autobiography, first published in 1954, charts her rise from a rat-infested apartment in Rome, to success in fashion, through the war years when she worked for the American Red Cross, to her eventual role as designer to the stars.