Vogue on: Elsa Schiaparelli

Shocking, witty and eccentric, the designs of Elsa Schiaparelli are among the most innovative and influential in the history of fashion.

Black gloves with golden fingernails, buttons shaped like lips, trompe l'oeil images, brightly colored zips and perfume bottles in the shape of a torso would not be out of place in fashion today, but they were created by Schiaparelli in the 1930s.

A true original, she collaborated with artists such as Salvador Dali and Man Ray, pioneered the runway show and designed costumes for film-stars from Mae West to Marlene Dietrich. She used film and stage as a publicity vehicle for her label, and her advertising graphics were far ahead of their time. Through the photographs and illustrations of Vogue that championed Schiaparelli from the first picture of her revolutionary Bow-knot sweater in 1927 to the Surrealist Tears dress and Shoe hat of the late 1930s, Elsa Schiaparelli presents the enduring legacy of this daring and visionary designer.

Vogue, the international fashion bible, has charted the careers of designers through the decades. Its unique archive of photographs, taken by the leading photographers of the day from Cecil Beaton to Mario Testino, and original illustrations, together with its stable of highly respected fashion writers, make Vogue the most authoritative and prestigious source of reference on fashion. With a circulation of over 160,000 and a readership of over 1,400,000, no brand is better positioned to present a library on the great fashion designers of the modern age.

Judith Watt is a fashion historian, writer and broadcaster. She is Course Director of the Fashion Journalism MA at Kingston University and teaches the history of dress on the Fashion Communication and Promotion BA at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. She is the Editor of the Penguin History of 20th Century Fashion Writing and author of Ossie Clarke: 1965 – 1974 and Dogs in Vogue.