- Schiaparelli, Elsa
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born Sept. 10, 1890, Rome, Italydied Nov. 13, 1973, Paris, Fr.Italian-born French fashion designer.After working in the U.S. as a film scriptwriter and translator, she settled in Paris and opened her first shop in the 1920s. By 1935 she was a leader in haute couture and was expanding into perfume, cosmetics, lingerie, jewelry, and swimsuits. Her designs combined eccentricity with simplicity and a trim neatness with flamboyant colour. She introduced the padded shoulder in 1932; designed fur bed jackets and rhinestone-trimmed lingerie in the 1940s; and in the 1950s popularized "shortie" coats in vivid reds, golds, and chartreuses. Her use of "shocking pink," the sensation of the 1947 season, is still regularly revived. With Christian Dior, she was instrumental in the worldwide commercialization of Parisian fashion.
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▪ French-Italian fashion designerborn Sept. 10, 1890, Rome, Italydied Nov. 13, 1973, Paris, FranceItalian-born fashion designer who established an important couture house in Paris. She was famous for her Surrealist (Surrealism) fashions of the 1930s and for her witty accessories, such as a purse in the shape of a telephone.Schiaparelli ran away from her upper-class family and worked in the United States briefly as a translator. Then in the late 1920s she settled in Paris, where she opened her couture house. By 1935 she was a leader in haute couture and was quickly expanding into jewelry, perfume, cosmetics, lingerie, and swimsuits. Her designs were noted for combining eccentricity with simplicity and a trim neatness with flamboyant colour. In 1947 Schiaparelli's new colour, “shocking pink,” was the sensation of the fashion world.She escaped to New York during World War II and opened a branch in 1949 to mass-produce suits, dresses, and coats of her design. Along with designer Christian Dior (Dior, Christian), she was instrumental in the worldwide commercialization of Parisian fashion.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
