Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli by Kyo Maclear (review)

Using Schiaparelli herself as narrator, this picture-book biography tells the story of her unsettled childhood and rise to premier couturier for a young audience. From the beginning, she feels undervalued by her parents, due to their disappointment at having a second daughter rather than a son and to the facial blemishes that make her self conscious. With age and the sunnier influence of a beloved uncle, Elsa finds a better way to cultivate confidence and forges her own path in life. A circle of artist friends encourages her passion for design and she eventually sets the fashion world on alert with new techniques (trompe l'oeil knitting), repurposed devices (decorative zipper, drawer pockets installed into a suit), startling motifs (lobster, lamb chop), and most famously, signature colors (shocking pink, ice blue). In full scenes and vignettes, Morstad's mixed-media paintings capture the lanky, classy panache of Schiap and her designs. A final note offers a brief assessment of Schiaparelli's innovations, endnotes source quotations, and a bibliography of works for older children and adults is included. This is a satisfying step-up for readers not quite ready for Rubin's Hot Pink: The Life & Fashions of Elsa Schiaparelli (BCCB 10/15).