She was, as Yves Saint Laurent said, “a comet lighting up the night sky in Paris, intent on domination.” 

First of all go check out the house's website, it is super informative, super well done and really cool !! 

Second of all, I want to start by saying I am now completely obsessed with Elsa Schiaparelli's story. I mean what a life she had. I started reading her autobiography and it is the most fascinating story I have ever read and that is counting my favorite romance and fantastic series. She has met some of the most historically influential people and has traveled from Italy to London, the US, Scandinavia, Copenhagen and Russia. Her family name meant something in the realm of the Italian upper class but she created her own image by being her authentic and confident self. 

Elsa Schiaparelli was born in 1890 in Italy. Her father was a professor and her uncle, whom she was very fond of and very close with, an astronomer. She grew up surrounded by aristocrats but she was above all shaped by her own imagination and fierce spirit. She changed schools and had many childish adventures, discovering the world in which she lived in. She was a little daredevil and never let anything stop her from doing what she wanted. At sixteen (in 1911), she managed to get a collection of poems she wrote published. She chose the name of Arethusa, a nymph from Greek mythology that was transformed into a spring. Her poems were about themes she didn't fully understand like sexuality, love and life but her mind birthed words that still resonated with her until she died. As a punishment, she was sent to a convent in Switzerland but of course, she did everything she could to not stay, including going on a hunger strike. She then left her home to flee an old guy she was supposed to marry. Mind you she was still pretty young, and yet, she was willing to leave the comfort of her upper class life. Off she was, following a friend to London in 1913. There, she met Count Wilhelm Wendt de Kerlor, a theosophist. After their marriage, they left for New York. They had a daughter that got really sick. For multiple reasons (him mainly not being present), they got divorced and Elsa left with her daughter for Paris in hope of finding better treatments. She went through a lot to find a roof over her and her child's head. From hotel to hotel, she desperately tried to find a home. 

She then met Paul Poiret and everything changed. Yes it was a lucky encounter but she had ideas ad creativity and a unique sense of self that captivated others. She set up a shop in in 1927 at 4 Rue de la Paix labeled as “Schiaparelli – Pour le Sport” (Schiaparelli – Sportswear) which featured the "jupes culottes", famously worn by tennis player Lili d'Alvarez (on the right). In 1935, the Couture House moves to Hôtel de Fontpertuis in the 21 place Vendôme. The Schiap Boutique 

Stop, Look and Listen Collection - tweeds, embroideries sarees, glass dresses - "Schiaparelli collection enough to cause crisis in vocabulary" (p.70)

It is designed by famed interior designer Jean-Michel Frank in collaboration with Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti. This is the first Couture House in which there is a boutique and an atelier in one building.

Daisy Fellowes and her daughter in Schiaparelli sari dresses, illustration by Cecil Beaton. Daisy was the Paris editor of American Harper's Bazaar and an heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune. She married house of Broglie - supposedly tried to seduce Winston Churchill but married his cousin instead  - she wrote a novel and had a sensational jewelry collection. 

I mean this brilliant woman even invented a color: shocking pink, a vibrant, undiluted and intense pigment. She used it for the iconic costume of Zsa Zsa Gabor for John Houston’s Moulin Rouge movie of 1953 (on the right). 

1946: “Constellation Wardrobe”, a collection made for traveling which contains six dresses, one reversible hat, and three folding hats, which altogether weighs under six kilograms. The wardrobe is a sensation as it represents the emancipation of women and anticipates their more frequent travels.

Elsa Schiaparelli decides to close the Couture House in 1954. She then starts writing her auto-biography entitled Shocking Life.

When France was liberated she came back to present a collection in september 1945. She also took part in the travelling exhibition Théâtre de la Mode across the United States. 

She died in her sleep in 1973. 

Let's take a minute to appreciate this moment here. Elsa appears on the cover of TIME Magazine in 1934. She is the first woman designer to ever achieve this honor. The article refers to her as “one of the arbiters of ultra-modern Haute Couture”. 

In July 1940, Elsa left Paris for the United States to give a series of conferences on the theme of “Clothes and the Woman”.   She was the first European to receive the Neiman Marcus Award.

Schiaparelli today

Diego Della Valle, chairman of luxury goods group Tod’s, acquired Schiaparelli in 2006. In 2012, rthe house re-opens at Hôtel de Fontpertuis at 21 place Vendôme. 

In 2014, the first Schiaparelli couture runway show since 1954, was presented during Paris Haute Couture week. 

In 2017, Maison Schiaparelli was awarded the official Haute Couture label (in pink of course) by the French Ministry of Industry and the French Couture Federation. Daniel Roseberry was named as the house's new creative director in April 2019, taking over from Betrand Guyon. In 2024, Roseberry received the Neiman Marcus Award.