Hard-Edged Chic 
Rosemary Hill
- Shocking! The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli by Dilys Blum
The second child of Maria-Luisa and Celestino Schiaparelli would, it was hoped, be a boy. When, instead, another daughter was born in September 1890, they were at a loss as to what to call her. At the last minute they christened her after her German nurse, Elsa. This ‘Wagnerian’ name displeased the little girl. It was, she recalled, her ‘first disappointment’ and she was not prepared to accept it: ‘The struggle had begun.’
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Rosemary Hill’s book about Pugin, God’s Architect, is out in paperback this summer.
Other articles by this contributor:
Keep Calm · Desperate Housewives
Making Do and Mending · Rosemary Hill reads Penelope Fitzgerald’s Letters
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