While icon, Gabrielle Coco Chanel, provided women with tailored suits and flawless seaming, Elsa Schiaparelli was shocking the world in, well, shocking pink! Famous for vibrant colors (she really did invent shocking pink), mad designs, and over-the-top accessories, Schiaparelli viewed fashion as the art of life, instead of necessary design.

She introduced the padded shoulder in 1932; designed fur bed jackets and rhinestone-trimmed lingerie in the 1940s; and in the 1950s popularized “shortie” coats in vivid reds, golds, and chartreuses.