Elsa Luisa Maria Schiaparelli was an avant-garde fashion designer extremely influential in the 1930s. Born in Rome into a well-to-do family, an early mésalliance with William de Wendt de Kerlo forced her to live in poverty in London and New York until she moved to Paris where she met avant-garde artists and—without ever having learned to sew—began her career in fashion. In contrast to Coco Chanel’s modernist simplicity, Schiaparelli indulged in aesthetic exaggerations and a profusion of fantastic decorations such as luxurious embroideries (realized by François Lesage, 1929–2011), often inspired by surrealist art.