Elsa Schiaparelli and clothing modeling

Elsa Schiaparelli. She is "Shocking Elsa". Today, the name of this woman is known only to people who are interested in the history of fashion, but the name of her rival, rival Elsa Coco Chanel everyone knows. Yes, Elsa Schiaparelli more than once challenged Mademoiselle Chanel herself. So who is Elsa? Elsa Schiaparelli is a fashion designer, clothing designer, her popularity fell on the 20-30s of the twentieth century. But this is not the main thing, but the main thing is that this woman was bold and very fond of crazy ideas in modeling clothes and accessories. And the most interesting were the things that she created together with the great surrealist Salvador Dali and the equally great Jean Cocteau.

Elsa was born on September 10, 1890 in Rome... Her uncle was the astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, who once discovered the Martian Canals. Elsa married early, but the marriage did not last long, and in the end she was left alone in Paris with her little daughter in her arms. Elsa came to the world of fashion thanks to a sweater, or an American guest, who was wearing a sweater. This sweater interested her. It turned out that he was tied by an Armenian woman who lives not far from her house. Together with this Armenian woman, Elsa developed her first dresses and sweaters. A knitted black dress became a real revolution in the world of fashion in 1927.

Schiaparelli then managed to get a large order from Strauss for sportswear. And, having opened her fashion house, Elsa Schiaparelli first dealt with sportswear and sweaters. It was she who introduced the lobster pattern for sweaters.

However, evening dresses were soon added to sweaters. Here, too, there were revolutions. Her black sheath dress, jacket and white scarf thrown over her back were a huge success.

But in the 30s, Elsa Schiaparelli actively collaborated with Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau. They made such crazy clothes that initially they even thought of introducing a comic payment for it, for example, payment in the form of deciphering dreams or guessing intricate riddles. But the clothes were popular. So one of their evening dresses was bought by the Duchess of Windsor. Evening dress depicting a still life of parsley and lobster.

The most shocking collection was the collection of hats, which included a shoe-hat, a telephone-hat, an ink-pot-hat, and a pill-hat. This is truly a collection from the Mad Hatter. How do you like the idea of ​​a cutlet hat?

Schiaparelli also had a pale blue evening dress on which Salvador Dali painted tears, tears that could only be seen under a certain light. It was a dress with fading tears.

Elsa also had outfits with buttons made in the form of miniature sculptures; these buttons were created by Jean Hugo. To this day, such buttons are the hallmark of the Schiaparelli house.

And it was Elsa who was one of the first to introduce jewelry into fashion. But what jewelry it was! How do you feel about an aspirin necklace? Jewelry was also made from candy, feathers, pencil stubs, erasers and blotting paper. And Jean Cocteau suggested the idea of ​​an ominous-looking earrings - an all-seeing eye.

Among the unusual things created Elsa Schiaparelli, you can also find and bags in the form of apples, gloves with false nails, knitted tight dress with a skeleton drawn on it. Elsa was also involved in perfumery. So, in honor of the liberation of France and the end of World War II, an unusual packaging for the "Sun King" perfume was created for her. The cap of this perfume was made in the form of a sun and symbolized the French king Louis XIV, known as the "sun king". The perfume was released in 1946.

But for Elsa herself, things did not go very well after the end of the war.In 1940, when the Germans occupied France, she left Paris and went to the United States, and when she returned after 1945, outfits from Christian Dior... There was no room for Schiaparelli and her ideas.

Elsa passed away in November 1973 and was buried in a pink silk suit.Even after her death, she continued to shock.