1890 – 1973
Fashion has unsurprisingly evolved from year to year and as we enter 2012 with a promising line up for the run way we tend to forget those who originally inspired us to design and create… Elsa Schiaparelli was born in 1890 into a life of luxury in Rome. It is thought she was disobedient from a young age and rather outrageous in her personality. 
She was well travelled from a young age as she moved from Rome to London to New York to Paris. She married at a young age, went on to have a daughter she named Gogo and divorced soon after with speculation of an unfaithful husband. From thereon she commenced her career as a fashion designer starting out designing and selling sweaters. Elsa Schiaparelli is widely recognised for her eccentric designs full of personality, inspiring even many fashion designers nowadays. Whilst the “Chanel” label even reigns over most designers still, once upon a time Elsa Schiaparelli was Coco Chanel’s greatest rival – With contrasting designs they remained in the same social circles and were often compared much to their dismay. Her fame rose from her spectacular collections alongside shows – she took a rather bizarre approach to displaying her collections. Many shows were themed from sailor tattoos to butterfly effects; she even printed press releases on fabric.
One of the most inspiring pieces Schiaparelli designed was in collaboration with Salvador Dali known as The Skeleton Dress. The skeleton dress was part of the “Circus collection” it was designed as an evening dress in 1938. The dress features a padded representation of human bones which would have been frowned upon at that time for its bizarreness but nowadays we can only see it as an inspiration to the fashion world – as in current times we are seeing dresses made out of meat! The dress is really an exceptional design, like a second skin made of silk its super fitting – The dress now sits in the Victoria Albert Museum alongside many other fantastic Schiaparelli designs.
