Elsa Schiaparelli

In september 1939, France and England declared war on Germany. Reason why Schiaparelli decided to leave Paris and sailed to New York, she would only come back to Paris in 1945 when the war ended. By that time, the parisian fashion mood had changed, women were interested in more romantic and classical silhouettes and that’s what Christian Dior’s New Look was.
Even though Schiaparelli kept presenting collections, she never saw the same success again. By the end of 1954, the surrealist fashion brand of Elsa Schiaparelli closed her doors.

It’s not 1930 anymore, and obviously Schiaparelli designs don 't shock society as much as they used to. But in times when Coco Chanel was the one being followed with her idea of the little black dress, Schiaparelli was creating the whole concept of the fashion shows with music and models to show her clothes. She also created, as mentioned before, the graphic trompe l’oeil knitwear and the use of visible zippers. In the words of Mademoiselle Chanel, Schiaparelli was “that italian artist who makes clothes”. She would have to wait years to get some recognition from her colleagues, and for the phrase that finally change to: “The “italian who conquer Paris”

As only Marcel Duchamp could imagine back in 1917, with his porcelain urinal or as he called it "Fountain", the ready-made objects are

It is quite hard to see at first sight the influence Schiaparelli had on McQueen, but in his 1998 Spring/Summer collection, with his corset made by Shaun Leane, everything got clear. This was just the first collection of many, in which he would play with women body and the “in and out” effect, famously used by Schiaparelli. Also, shown in his capsule collection with Samsonite, he designed suitcases with a human skeleton