Elsa Schiaparelli: A Biography

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Abigail Thaw

Meryle Secrest

Libby Spurrier

Joanna Green

Book of the Week: Elsa Schiaparelli: A Biography: Episode 4

Episode 4

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Elsa Schiaparelli: A Biography, Episode 4

The story of one of the most extraordinary fashion designers of the twentieth century.

The Italian born 1920s fashion queen, who launched her meteoric career in Paris in the face of adversity. Read by Abigail Thaw.

During the glittering 1920s and 30s, Elsa Schiaparelli was the undisputed Queen of Fashion. Everyone who was anyone, from Vivien Leigh to the Duchess of Windsor, entered her doors on the Place Vendôme and obediently wore whatever she instructed.

Her clothes were beautifully made, but they were also designed in a manner no one had seen before - buttons that looked like butterflies, mermaids or carrots, trompe l'oeil pockets that looked like lips, gloves with red nails appliquéd on them. She was unique.

Born into a prominent Italian family, she moved to London and married a supposed Polish count who, it transpired, was really a French con-man. His deportation during the First World War saw them move to New York, where he abandoned Schiaparelli and their baby daughter. Undaunted, she picked herself up, moved to Paris and launched her meteoric career, surviving the Second World War despite being under suspicion of spying from both sides.

Her story is one of pluck and determination, talent and great imagination. Along with Coco Chanel, her greatest rival, she was one of the few female figures in the field at the time. And her collaborations with artists such as Man Ray, Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau and Alberto Giacometti, elevated the field of women's clothing design into the realm of art.

Reader: Abigail Thaw
 
Written by Meryle Secrest
Abridged by Libby Spurrier

Produced by Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Book of the Week: Elsa Schiaparelli: A Biography

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Factual: Life Stories

By Meryle Secrest. Biography of the Italian fashion designer, famed in the 1920s and 30s.

By Meryle Secrest. Biography of the Italian fashion designer, considered the undisputed Queen of Fashion in the 1920s and 30s.

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