Bloom A story of fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli

Kyo Maclear, 1970-

Book - 2018

By the 1930s Elsa Schiaparelli had captivated the fashion world in Paris, but before that, she was a little girl in Rome who didn't feel pretty at all. Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli is the enchanting story for young readers of how a young girl used her imagination and emerged from plain to extraordinary.

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Subjects
Genres
Biographies
Picture books
Published
New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 2018.
Language
English
Main Author
Kyo Maclear, 1970- (author)
Other Authors
Julie Morstad (illustrator)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
40 unnumbered pages : color illustrations ; 30 cm
Audience
Ages 4-8.
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (page [40]).
ISBN
9780062447616
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

With beautiful, richly colorful, and playful artwork nicely evoking the character of its subject, this lyrical biography of Elsa Schiaparelli offers picture-book readers an enlightening introduction to the wildly inventive and influential fashion designer. Beginning with her staid childhood, Maclear and Morstad draw a sharp comparison between her family, rendered in grays and browns, and the explosive colors of flowers Elsa preferred, which appear in bold pinks and reds, sometimes growing out of her skin. As she leaves the formality of the Italian aristocracy behind and strikes out on her own, her lively imagination and surreal sense of style eventually take the fashion world by storm, particularly when she invents her signature color, shocking pink, which (unshockingly) is heavily featured in the palette of the illustrations. Morstad's delicate watercolor illustrations do a great job of depicting Schiaparelli's designs, but subtle hints pink flowers composed of dresses, shoes, and gloves, for instance emphasize how Schiaparelli's view of the world shaped her artwork. Little ones who dare to be different will be inspired.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2017 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

The duo behind Julia, Child offers a bold first-person biography of designer Elsa Schiaparelli, beginning with her dreary childhood in Rome, where the bright colors of market flowers brought her joy in a family that dismissed her as ugly. Schiaparelli's passion for color and beauty never waned, and Maclear describes how, as a single mother in Paris, Schiaparelli discovered a community of artists-including Meret Oppenheim and Salvador Dalí-who helped foster her artistic identity. Morstad's vivid mixed-media have an imaginativeness to match Schiaparelli's surrealistic designs (playing with a beloved uncle as a child, she soars amid the stars and planets of the cosmos) and feature splashes of Schiaparelli's trademark shade of pink: "Bright, impossible, impudent, becoming, life-giving, like all the light and the birds and the fish in the world put together." It's a dramatic tribute worthy of its audacious subject. Ages 4-8. Author's agent: Jackie Kaiser, Westwood Creative Artists. Illustrator's agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Literary Management. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review

K-Gr 2-This stunningly illustrated picture book biography on fashion pioneer Elsa Schiaparelli opens on a melancholy tone that is carried through much of the story-her parents were disappointed that she was born a girl. The first-person narration adds tenderness and a sense of intimacy to the story, but holes exist in this telling, which focuses to a fault on Schiaparelli's childhood and development. When the adult Schiaparelli quits jobs, divorces, or moves locations quickly, these experiences are quickly passed over in the narrative. Likewise, the significant financial support she received from friends and from her mother is not mentioned. This might have been forgiven if the text had dedicated more space to Schiaparelli's design achievements and creative partnerships, but this information is primarily found in the helpful endnotes and in Morstad's dreamily expressive and colorful painted figures and clothing ensembles, not in the main text. If this biography has strength, it is that it does not eschew the value of beauty, but redefines it in new a context. Ultimately, Maclear's narrative does not keep pace with Morstad's delightful artwork. VERDICT Large picture book biography collections with an interest in fashion may want to consider.-Lauren Younger, New York Public Library © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review

An imagined first-person voice, dotted with (sourced) quotations, introduces flamboyant Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Beginning with her parents' harsh treatment of her, the narrative reveals a creative woman determined to leave a designing legacy with inventive, playful looks. The watercolor, gouache, and pencil-crayon illustrations depict how a dreary childhood "bloomed" into a color-filled life. An appended note says more about Schiaparelli's accomplishments. Reading list. Bib. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

An exuberant fictionalized rendering of designer Elsa Schiaparelli's early life.Maclear and Morstad (Julia, Child, 2014) again join forces, here exploring what sparked the firecracker of creativity in "Schiap" (pronounced "Skap"), an indomitable little white girl from Rome who went on to become one of the 20th century's most influential and radical fashion designers. Maclear's intimate, first-person, present-tense account begins with how the young Schiap internalized her parents' affection for her beautiful older sister and their palpable disappointment in their less-attractive second child. It centers on an episode made famous in Schiaparelli's autobiographynamely, when, around age 7, she was inspired to try to make herself more beautiful by planting flower seeds in her "ears, mouth, and nose" that then had to be removed by "two doctors." Says Schiap: "My plan flops, but a different kind of seed is planted / a seed of wild imagination." Here, as throughout the story, Morstad's delicate, detailed mixed-media illustrations masterfully expand on the text, showing a full-page close-up of the doe-eyed Schiap's face dwarfed by a dazzling garland of flowers, some of which are pointedly colored in what the adult Schiaparelli would later re-create as "shocking pink," which set the 1931 fashion world "spin[ning] with panic and delight."Not only a gorgeous portrayal of this 20th-century creative genius, but an empowering tale encouraging readers to "dare to be different." (author and illustrator's note, endnotes, bibliography) (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.