The early career of Elsa Schiaparelli (Rome, 10 September 1890 – Paris, 13 November 1973) appears an incessant struggle for small freedoms, conducted with other women who shared this impulse. She came to fashion from instinct, necessity. Hers was a rapid and absolutely spontaneous revolution. Sometimes ironically, sometimes cruelly, her vision of a dress embodied the phantoms and obsessions of female desire, bolstering her profound feeling of independence. And in her furious rush she was never alone.

The volume is part of the series OILÀ, edited by Chiara Alessi, which presents the stories of women as protagonists of the twentieth century. Female figures on the Italian and international creative scene (from design to fashion, architecture, music, illustration, graphics, photography and literature) who have distinguished themselves in fields and professions that have always been considered a prerogative of men. The books, designed to be read aloud from beginning to end in forty-five minutes, are stories of people seen through a special lens that reveals their biographies, works, private lives and public achievements.

The graphic design is by Studio Sonnoli.