Patricia Volk
From the acclaimed author of ,Stuffed: ,an intimate, richly illustrated memoir, written with charm and panache, that juxtaposes two fascinating livesâ€”the iconoclastic designer Elsa Schiaparelli and the authorâ€™s own motherâ€”to explore how a girl fashions herself into a woman., Audrey Morgen Volk, an upper-middle-class New Yorker, was a great beauty and the polished hostess at her familyâ€™s garment district restaurant. Elsa Schiaparelliâ€”â€œSchiapâ€â€”the haute couture designer whose creations shocked the world, blurred the line between fashion and art, and believed that everything, even a button, has the potential to delight. , Audreyâ€™s daughter Patricia read Schiapâ€™s autobiography, ,Shocking Life,, at a tender age, and was transformed by it. These two womenâ€”volatile, opinionated, and brilliant each in her own wayâ€”offered Patricia contrasting lessons about womanhood and personal style that allowed her to plot her own course. , Moving seamlessly between the Volksâ€™ Manhattan and Florida milieux and Schiapâ€™s life in Rome and Paris (among friends such as DalÃ­, Duchamp, and Picasso), ,Shocked ,weaves Audreyâ€™s traditional notions of domesticity with Schiaparelliâ€™s often outrageous ideas into a marvel-filled, meditation on beauty, and on being a daughter, sister, and mother, while demonstrating how a single book can change a life.
Autobiography,Memoir,Nonfiction,Couture,Fashion,Biography,Biography Memoir,Book Club,New York,Adult
Shocked: My Mother, Schiaparelli, and Me