Shocking Life Paperback – March 1, 2007

For a fashion designer that in her time invented the newspaper print, the bottle perfume made as a little body -now copied by Gaultier-, the first zipper in a haute couture dress and a variety of items from hats to shoes and dresses inspired by surrealism and dada, this autobiography lacks of real interest in design and fashion.Have you ever met such a lady so fascinated with herself that she always thinks everything she does from open a beer can to walk her dog is a world event? This is precisely the case here. Even when is not boring to read, Elsa seem to forget her real contribution to fashion design, and then what we get is a collection of traveling and social acquaintances. Once and then she just drop, 'and that was the time when I made the Roi Soleil -a perfume with a bottle designed by Dali, commemorative of the end of french occupation-' or I made a hat....Her quite serendipitious arrive to fashion design when she order a knitted sweater to be made on her with a big ribbon drawn in the front by some armenian woman, was spotted in the street and get an order for dozens of them, was then continued by a career of many extravagancies -skeletons, lobster dress, a shoe-hat, that made her in that times more famous than Coco Chanel.She stopped her career after the world war, when she was not able to be in tone with the zeitgeist and went into oblivion, when you read this book and just have the vague mention of Marcel Duchamp -his lover Maria Martins-, Dali, Paul Poiret, Greta Garbo, Lucien Lelong, even Chanel and Dior, but never get any interesting detail about them, you start to realize that maybe Elsa was to much intoxicated by herself to even be aware of the extraordinary presences she has in front of her eyes. And left guessing if she was just extraordinary lucky to be at the right time and place with a knitted sweater and drawn ribbon. By a very strange self censorship we do not get even the slightly glimpse into her love life or any spicy anecdote about anyone in the surroundings either!it has some little pages with a few black and white photographs of her, her dogs and daughter -never the dresses- and at the end of each chapter a cute fashion drawing made by herself.Nevertheless can be read easily and stands as a portrait of the time between the wars in Europe and America... if only she would stop and tell us a little about her process, how she get inspired, what she thought about the garment construction, how she organized the atelier, etc. then it would be something of real interest for the designer and the aficionado, and not just a curiosity of interest only for the fashion historian -like me-.

Love fashion and love Schiaparelli (pronounced Scap-a-relli. If you like history and the 1930's evolution of fashion, you will love reading about Elsa's life. My favorite dress is her "Skeleton" dress that shocked many people in it's time. It was considered vulgar back then. She was definitely ahead of her time. What a creative designer she was. Of couse she was, she was Italian!

I loved the purchase, the book was very old, but it the original first edition with hardcover!

If you're interested in Schiaparelli, this is a good book to buy. She's extremely full of herself and that gets annoying at times, but the narrative reads well and it's interesting for the most part.

Real story of a magnificent designer which inspires to be true to your art and caft and to keep moving forward in life to meet your goals and live your dreams. Good read!

I love hearing the story of Schiap in her own voice! It reminds me of talking with my babci who was very stylish and dramatic and fun.

Delivery perfect. Read this book in 2 days. Excellent. One of the best books about Schiap.

Item arrived in a timely fashion- no pun intended.

Elsa Schiaparelli was Italian by birth and was one of the world's leading haute couturiers in the 1920's and 1930's, her fashion house closed in 1954. Autobiographies only reveal what the person wants you to know, and for me this book lacks a lot of important detail, particularly in terms of her fashion, her approach to her craft, her customers, staff, workrooms etc. So much important information is missing. She knew many famous artists, aristocrats, royalty, world leaders, politicians, film stars, and writers, but this is given the lightest touch here.The book focuses mostly on her love for France, the second world war and her time in the USA, which did not involve fashion, so not what I was looking for. She is certainly an interesting, talented woman and comes across as quite brave and certainly innovative. But I wanted the fashion, the haute couture, the perfumes, the jewelry, which is only touched on here. She traveled the world and was highly celebrated, but this book in her own words, does not do this greatest of fashion designers justice.I must also agree with over reviewers on the writing style as it flits all over the place and between the first and third person, which I found very irritating.

I am not sure exactly what to say about this autobiography by one of fashions greats, One thing for sure is that she seems much more likable than her arch rival Coco Chanel, of whom i have read numerous biography's. She was also much more imaginative and it is a shame that she isn't better remembered today. Her writing style is fairly engaging, and I enjoyed the way she sometimes writes in the third person. But the thing which caused me to lose interest for a time is that she waffles on and on about the war and doesn't have much that is interesting to say about it. In fact the bulk of the book is about her life during the war. In fairness, She did do a lot of voluntary work for a woman who was so upper-class, But I got so sick of the uninteresting, unnecessary details that I put it down for a good three weeks before picking it up again. Something I seldom do. She actually glosses over the more interesting and productive periods of her life such as the 1930's. I enjoyed it, but it became a bore at times is the bottom line. I think a regular biography of her may have been more revealing.

If someone wrote a book on 'the first times in fashion', Schiaparelli would be featured in half of the book, much more than her rival Chanel. If you know Schiaparelli, there is no need to tell you how amazing she is and why you should read this book. If you don't, then it's time to stop living in sin.

Interesting life but hard to follow the narrative. Struggled to read unfortunately

Creative, innovative, and an interesting life but her written word doesn't folla any normal pattern...she skips around, but she was a true personality!