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July 2025
No. 29
Beauty and Wellness
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That Was Then
When Elsa Schiaparelli, the surrealist couturier who loved visual puns and trompe-l’oeil, came up with her most successful fragrance in 1936, she named it Shocking after her favorite shade of pink. The bottle itself was modeled after Mae West’s dressmaker dummy, headless and limbless like an ancient Greek statue. The iconoclastic designer may have invented the creative collaboration, having teamed up with Jean-Michel Frank and Alberto Giacometti on her Place Vendôme couture house and Salvador Dalí on dresses and makeup compacts. In this ad, illustrated by Marcel Vertès, a woman looks to be stranded on a desert island with just her fragrance to sustain her. Maybe she parachuted out of the plane. Maybe she’s holding out her thumb to hitch a ride back to civilization. Or maybe not. Who needs food, shelter, and clothing when you have a bottle of perfume by your side? —Linda Wells

July 4, 2025

Illustration: courtesy Patrimoine Schiaparelli, Paris
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Issue No. 29
July 4, 2025
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Issue No. 29
July 4, 2025