Elsa Schiaparelli was born in Rome in 1890 and moved to Paris in the 1920s, where she established herself as one of the most innovative and influential fashion designers of the 20th century. She founded her fashion house in 1927 in Paris, initially producing knitwear before expanding to full couture collections.
Schiaparelli's work in the 1930s was characterized by its surrealist influences, reflecting her friendships and collaborations with artists including Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau, and Man Ray. Her most famous designs include the Lobster Dress (created with Dali), the Skeleton Dress, the Shoe Hat, and the Tear Dress. She invented the color "shocking pink" and launched the fragrance Shocking in 1937.
Schiaparelli was one of the dominant forces in Paris fashion alongside Coco Chanel during the 1930s. The two designers were rivals, with Chanel reportedly dismissing Schiaparelli as "that Italian woman who makes clothes." Schiaparelli's influence on fashion was profound, introducing surrealism, trompe l'oeil, and conceptual design to mainstream fashion.
The original Maison Schiaparelli closed in 1954, as Elsa Schiaparelli struggled to adapt to the postwar fashion landscape dominated by Christian Dior's New Look. Elsa Schiaparelli died in 1973.
The Schiaparelli name and archives were acquired by Diego Della Valle in 2006. Della Valle invested in reviving the house, appointing Christian Lacroix to create an exhibition in 2012 and then relaunching with ready-to-wear collections in 2014 under artistic director Marco Zanini. Bertrand Guyon served as artistic director from 2015 to 2019.
Daniel Roseberry, an American designer from Texas who had previously worked at Thom Browne, was appointed artistic director in 2019. Roseberry's first collection was presented in January 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenging environment, Roseberry's work quickly gained critical acclaim and cultural visibility, with his haute couture pieces becoming some of the most photographed and discussed fashion moments of the early 2020s.