Schiaparelli is one of the few names in fashion that can claim to have invented a colour, started a feud with Coco Chanel, and put a lobster on a dress. The house was founded in Paris in 1927 by Elsa Schiaparelli, an Italian-born designer who treated clothing as an art form and built her studio at 21 Place Vendôme. Almost a century later it sits among the most recognisable couture houses in the world, and yes, it is unequivocally a luxury brand.

Who founded Schiaparelli, and when

Elsa Schiaparelli opened her house in 1927. She came up through knitwear, and her first hit was a trompe l’oeil sweater knitted with an illusionary bow. From there she moved into Surrealism, working with Salvador Dali on the 1937 Lobster Dress, the Tears Dress and the Shoe Hat, and with Jean Cocteau on embroidered eveningwear. She launched a perfume in a bottle shaped like a woman’s torso and named a colour, Shocking Pink, that the industry still uses. Her great rival was Chanel, who reportedly called her “that Italian artist who makes clothes.”

Is Schiaparelli a haute couture house?

It is. Elsa closed the house in 1954, and it stayed quiet until 2012, when Diego Della Valle, the chairman of Tod’s, relaunched it. Schiaparelli is now an official member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, the body that governs who can use the term in Paris. That places it in the same small circle as Chanel and Dior, houses permitted to show genuine made-to-measure couture rather than ready-to-wear alone.

Daniel Roseberry and the modern era

The house found its current voice when Daniel Roseberry took over as creative director in 2019. The Texas-born designer, previously at Thom Browne, revived Elsa’s Surrealism for the red carpet through gilded anatomical jewellery, gold padlocks and keyholes, and sculptural tailoring cast in black wool and ivory satin. His work has dressed a run of headline moments, including Lady Gaga at the 2021 presidential inauguration in a navy jacket and red skirt finished with a gold dove brooch, Bella Hadid, Beyonce, and Kylie Jenner in the hand-embroidered lion-head gown at the Spring 2023 couture show.

Where is Schiaparelli made?

Haute couture is realised by hand in the Paris atelier. The ready-to-wear, the pieces you can shop here at Luxury Shoes , is produced in Italy, the heartland of luxury garment manufacturing. Expect couture-level finishing on the ready-to-wear too, from the gold hammered buttons to the signature Keyhole rivet stitched at the back of a knit.

Shop Schiaparelli at Luxury Shoes

Luxury Handbags carries Schiaparelli ready-to-wear with guaranteed authenticity and worldwide shipping. Browse the full Schiaparelli edit, and go straight to the icons: the Keyhole Dress, the Elsa Jacket, and the Padlock Jacket. For more, read our guide to how to style Schiaparelli and our edit of brands like Schiaparelli.