8 as red as blood: SH, p. 27.
9 his patience was tried: diary kept by R.F.C.H.Q., 1914–1918, www.archive.org.
10 Davis’s trip to Salonika: Charlotte Observer, January 16, 1916.
11 Her only comment: SH, p. 27.
12 a railway voucher: SH, p. 27.
13 His brother, Edouard: Bureau of Investigation files, September 3, 1918.
14 “the multitudes of wounded”: Charlotte Observer, January 16, 1916.
15 outrun its unknown assailant: New York Times, February 21, 1916.
16 “grey eyes that twinkle”: Charlotte Observer, May 27, 1917.
17 “the faculty of intuition”: New York Herald, May 21, 1916.
18 “the best lodging”: SH, p. 28.
19 “the fight for existence”: SH, p. 29.
20 a few measurements: New York Evening Post, June 1, 1919.
21 roaming aimlessly: SH, p. 29.
22 “What of the finer”: Idaho Statesman, May 20, 1917; Richmond Times Dispatch, July 13, 1917.
23 the beautiful press agent: Sun, February 9, 1918.
24 “Are You Born Coward?”: Tacoma Times, August 9, 1917.
25 “you might disorganize”: Tacoma Times, August 9, 1917.
26 “at the exact moment”: SH, pp. 29–30.
27 “The great man”: Bureau of Investigation files, September 3, 1918.
28 The doctor was also prepared: Variety, November 30, 1917.
29 “The World Famous”: Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, February 21, 1918.
30 the Strand Theatre: New Town Register, May 9, 1918.
31 “They got the vote”: SH, p. 26.
32 from a prima donna: SH, p. 32.
33 Walska in Cuba: SH, pp. 32–34.
34 “the correct theory”: HEA, p. 87.
35 claimed another victory: Ibid.
36 “I am a psychologist”: Ibid.
37 World War I had ended: in November 1918.
38 “he knew too much”: HEA, p. 346.
39 six thousand dollars in fact: HEA, p. 100.
40 “He is a rather short man”: Boston Post, January 19, 1919.
41 “a prophetic projection”: HEA, p. 132.
42 “the past unfolded”: Ibid.
43 “let them all squirm”: HEA, p. 125.
44 it was wartime: Ibid.
45 “regards as a lunatic”: Bureau of Investigation report, May 2, 1919.
CHAPTER 3 • THEMES OF LOVE AND DEATH
1 Sinister sounds of someone: Bureau of Investigation reports, February 13 and 28, 1918.
2 visited them two months later: on May 13, 1919.
3 “will do his utmost”: Bureau of Investigation report, May 3, 1919.
4 the cheapest items: SH, p. 29.
5 “to me they were kind”: SH, p. 32.
6 what he claimed to have heard: New York World, June 18, 1920.
7 to add to it a mink lining: HB, August 1993.
8 “At last I succeeded”: SH, p. 31.
9 split the proceeds: Ibid.
10 “nice old nurse”: Ibid.
11 “the best deal”: SH, p. 32.
12 “So I was called Gogo”: HB, August 1993.
13 “alone and parentless”: Ibid.
14 “méchante boîte”: SH, p. 37.
15 His birth date: taken from his draft card.
16 he arrived in the U.S.: Ibid.
17 His address then was 73 Riverside Drive: Idem.
18 Laurenti had moved again: Supplemental U.S. Census, February 1920.
19 “Being compatriots”: SH, p. 35.
20 “Mario Laurenti’s girl friend”: Office of Strategic Services, August 5, 1943.
21 reason enough to escape: FBI, August 27, 1942; # 65-183.
22 Schiaparelli had to make the funeral arrangements: SH, p. 37.
23 “Like Job, I reeled”: SH, p. 36.
CHAPTER 4 • MURDER AND MAYHEM
1 Maria-Luisa genuinely wanted her: SH, p. 37.
2 and proposed to use the needle: Richard Martin, Fashion and Surrealism, p. 15.
3 Let there be fashion: Richard Martin, Fashion and Surrealism, p. 14.
4 directing an exhibition: PAL, p. 43.
5 a legal separation: A date was finally granted in the summer of 1932, two years after the request. By then, Elsa had left the U.S. and so had Willy.
6 referring to herself in the third person: SH, p. 37.
7 life of the boulevards: JON, pp. 445–47.
8 un petit café: Vincent Bouvet and Gerard Durozoi, Paris Between the Wars 1919–1939, p. 28.
9 “a utopian fruit”: JON, p. 447.
10 “reeked of ‘petrol’ ”: JON, p. 448.
11 lived there for several years, happily: PAL, p. 44.
12 she owed her success: PAL, p. 44.
13 hired a cook: PAL, p. 45.
14 “two opposite directions at once”: FLA, xiii.
15 “had little black columns”: PAL, p. 45
16 Elsa rather fell for him: Ibid.
17 “his momentary delusion”: FLA, p. 151.
18 a mouthful of pins: PAL, p. 48.
19 extravagantly admired: PAL, p. 45.
20 limited to the comment: Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, February 21, 1921.
21 moved to Washington: Binghamton Press, December 8, 1921.
22 his subsequent findings: Utica Sunday Tribune, January 1, 1922.
23 “the largest, biggest”: Ibid.
24 “the” U.S. delegate: Ibid.
25 “before we could get him”: Board of Special Inquiry, Laredo, Texas, letter to Inspector in Charge, Immigration Services, San Antonio, Texas. Letters dated December 20, 1923, December 29, 1923, and January 5, 1924.
26 “some experimental studies”: La Prensa, San Antonio, Texas, February 9, 1924.
27 a few bottles of fine wine: SH, p. 38.
28 a French divorce: Expéditions et Actes de l’État Civil, March 21, 1924.
29 “witty and sharp and short”: SH, p. 41.
30 “a turning-point”: Ibid.
31 “what had been sports clothes”: MOD, p. 141.
32 “like a scarecrow”: SH, p. 42.
33 a famous collaboration: BLUM, p. 13.
34 She was a sensation: SH, p. 43.
35 “an artistic masterpiece”: BLUM, p. 13.
36 “strikingly original”: Ibid.
37 “the hand-knitted sweater”: Ibid.
38 not even mentioned: Ibid.
39 being sold elsewhere: BLUM, p. 14.
40 launched the firm: Ibid.
41 a dazzling overall effect: Martin Battersby, The Decorative Twenties, p. 77.
42 “the kitchen upwards”: SH, p. 39.
43 “in a satanic saraband”: SH, p. 47.
44 only a small fox terrier: Ibid.
45 the greatest oil port: Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 777.
46 “defiled by oil”: Joseph Hergesheimer, Tampico, p. 15.
47 “rolling black smoke”: Tampico, p. 47.
48 the water table was rising: Tampico, p. 17.
49 in the years ahead: Así es Tampico, City of Tampico Web site.
50 shot De Kerlor in the stomach: Tampico Tribune, May 5, 1928; Heraldo de Mexico, May 5, 1928.
51 conflicting details: La Prensa, San Antonio, May 7, 1928.
CHAPTER 5 • COQ FEATHERS
1 “a city of charm and enticement”: FLA, xxi.
2 “the great square”: FLA, xxiii.
3 young women in cloche hats: flyleaf photograph, Vincent Bouvet and Gérard Durozoi, Paris Between the Wars, 1919–1939.
4 “Schiaparelli’s little jokes”: New Yorker, June 18, 1932.
5 “the visible symbol”: New York, 1948, p. 31.
6 French dress exports: Paris Between the Wars, p. 107.
7 “nothing to distinguish”: LAV, p. 233.
8 walking down a London street: BLUM, p. 30.
9 daringly divided skirt: BLUM, p. 31.
10 The swimsuit design: BLUM, p. 2
7.
11 a fur scarf: Vogue, April 15, 1931, p. 140.
12 “Stark simplicity”: SH, p. 48.
13 savoring a green mint: BLUM, p. 38.
14 the “Mad Cap”: BLUM, p. 55.
15 the horrible hat: SH, pp. 49–50.
16 the Basque coast: BLUM, p. 33.
17 all the rich ladies: SH, p. 49.
18 by a lesser painter: letter to author from Erik Lahode.
19 “like strange caricatures”: SH, p. 49.
20 “I was deeply affected”: SH, p. 41.
21 “I got off in Lausanne”: HB, August 1993.
22 “we spent as much time”: SH, p. 50.
23 “At last she got better”: Ibid.
24 “We communicated”: SH, p. 48.
25 They liked severe suits: SH, p. 49.
26 the quintessence of chic: BLUM, pp. 40–41.
27 a desultory argument: BLUM, p. 26.
28 “saintlike skeleton”: Janet Flanner, “Comet,” New Yorker, June 18, 1932.
29 “like a donkey”: BET.
30 Her telegram home: BET.
31 “the soul of supreme”: SH, p. 47.
32 stayed with Schiaparelli to the end: PAL, p. 79.
33 “Pan has piped in”: Women’s Wear Daily, May 12, 1938.
34 “She could be quite scary”: HB, August 1993.
35 a velvet cape: Women’s Wear Daily, March 2, 1933.
36 the hipbones of a horse: Flanner, “Comet,” New Yorker, June 18, 1932.
37 “In Schiaparelli’s hands”: BLUM, p. 34.
38 a puff-sleeve look: BLUM, p. 32.
39 “gouging in the waist”: BLUM, p. 34.
40 The resulting creation: BLUM, p. 43.
41 Coq feathers were plainly: BLUM, p. 45.
42 Eric’s drawing for Vogue: April 1, 1933.
CHAPTER 6 • COMET
1 Both came straight from Rome: Women’s Wear Daily, November 18, 1929.
2 “new crinkley things”: UPI, Washington Post, September 17, 1933.
3 “nothing short of thrilling”: Harper’s Bazaar, April 1932.
4 to exactly fit a handy flask: Women’s Wear Daily, August 5, 1932.
5 a total dud: Women’s Wear Daily, November 16, 1933.
6 “a timbered park”: Vogue, December 7, 1932.
7 so much window dressing: Boston Globe, October 1932.
8 “her willingness to work”: BLUM, p. 102.
9 “Today she is recognized”: Janet Flanner, “Comet,” New Yorker, June 18, 1932.
10 “the first rank”: PAL, p. 78.
11 “Again Schiaparelli reveals”: Women’s Wear Daily, December 15, 1933.
12 pronounce her a genius: on August 13, 1934; PAL, p. 78.
13 “smothered in flowers”: SH, p. 56.
14 “I consider both clothes”: New York Times, March 5, 1933.
15 The press showings: from an article in Harper’s Bazaar, April 1933.
16 “the most deadly serious”: Star, London, April 27, 1953.
17 “Slimming shows immediately”: Ibid.
18 Katharine Hepburn: SH, p. 52.
19 “new world society”: Kenneth Clark, Another Part of the Wood, p. 220.
20 looked rather like Nero: Meryle Secrest, A Biography of Romaine Brooks, 1974, pp. 215–16.
21 cuffs of emeralds: as seen in Thierry Coudert, Café Society, 2010, p. 91.
22 “the personification of”: Penelope Rowlands, A Dash of Daring, 2005, p. 155.
23 “an archaic Greek Apollo”: BET essay.
24 “social and artistic life in Paris”: Ibid.
25 Life was very gay: Vogue, August 5, 1931.
26 Paris just wasn’t amusing: Ibid.
27 “One diverted one’s-self”: FLA, p. 67.
28 “spirit of their time”: Ibid.
29 “the charabanc party”: FLA, p. 69. 136 “the metaled boughs”: Ibid.
30 the champagne was gold: Jane S. Smith, Elsie de Wolfe, 1982, p. 247.
31 white plaster wigs: BLUM, pp. 101–102; FLA, p. 68.
32 a necklace of coq feathers: BLUM, p. 102.
33 the Paris of the cloister: BLUM, p. 101.
34 “telling wonderful stories”: SH, p. 39.
35 “nothing for themselves”: Star, London, April 27, 1953.
36 even the perfume: Ibid.
37 “no one changes a thing”: Hommage à Schiaparelli, Musée de la Mode et du Costume, 1984, p. 122.
CHAPTER 7 • THE BOUTIQUE FANTASQUE
1 “how little it cost her”: DAL, p. 141.
2 “the Dalís were always there”: Bettina Bergery, letter to author, October 4, 1984.
3 “A dress has no life”: quoted in Richard Martin, Fashion and Surrealism, p. 197.
4 “She dared and dreamed”: Martin, Fashion and Surrealism, p. 198.
5 “A visionary”: Martin, p. 207.
6 Dalí was her male counterpart: Ibid.
7 his own visual vocabulary: PHILA, p. 458.
8 “an icy eroticism”: PHILA, p. 258.
9 transposed the idea to a suit: BLUM, p. 132.
10 worn by two models: BLUM, p. 133.
11 topped it with silk fruit: Avenue, March 1991.
12 died a quiet death: Two examples exist, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum.
13 “generous with ideas”: BET; unpublished essay.
14 another Antoine wig: BLUM, p. 126; Harper’s Bazaar, June 1931.
15 fantastical forms: BLUM, p. 122.
16 a rose being held by a hand: BLUM, p. 131.
17 “Petite Rêverie du grand veneur”: Minotaure, May 1934.
18 a Man Ray photograph: BLUM, p. 129.
19 even more sinister: Martin, p. 103.
20 “also made in white”: BLUM, p. 123; Martin, pp. 93, 102.
21 “the rarefied skies”: SH, p. 66.
22 “kind of strange button”: Ibid.
23 Schiaparelli would not hide: BLUM, p. 88.
24 “Astounded buyers bought”: SH, p. 66.
25 “I was a bit hasty”: Loïc Allio, Buttons, p. 136.
26 “the nearest thing”: Harper’s Bazaar, August 1993.
27 “my beau Peter”: SH, p. 60.
28 all whistling was forbidden: HOR, p. 23.
29 “a happy bachelor”: HOR, p. 31.
30 only her typewriter: HOR, p. 49.
31 “in a sleepy hollow”: HOR, p. 64.
32 “tiny deformed feet”: HOR, p. 65.
33 “clad in a raffish”: HOR, pp. 67–68.
34 the car … crashed: HOR, p. 60.
35 went bankrupt: P. Lesley Cook, The Cement Industry: Effects of Mergers, 2003, p. 6.
36 a force to be reckoned with: Canberra Times, November 29, 1929.
37 “close to the wind”: HOR, p. 72.
38 in bankruptcy court: Times, London, January 28, 1932.
39 “luxury and mischief”: HOR, p. 71.
40 “would arrive grandly”: HOR, p. 72.
41 “In old age”: HOR, p. 73.
42 “Seagers tottered”: HOR, p. 72.
43 “wherever she went”: SH, p. 60.
44 advertisement for Lux: Hull Daily Mail, June 4, 1931.
45 almost missed their train: SH, pp. 57–58.
46 “a small quid pro quo”: HOR, pp. 76–77.
47 upstairs bedrooms connected: HOR, p. 77.
48 “And dearly I love”: SH, p. 54.
49 walking ankle-deep: SH, p. 98.
50 “boats that really worked”: HOR, p. 76.
51 a vast fur coat: Ibid.
52 the most radiant possible smile: BLUM, p. 187.
53 “blocks of green wood”: E. M. Delafield, The Provincial Lady in London, p. 125.
54 “One had two hats”: Loelia, Duchess of Westminster, Grace and Favour, p. 80.
55 “a child’s paper hat”: Meryle Secrest, Kenneth Clark, p. 123.
56 an upside-down shoe: BLUM, p. 166.
57 the cartoon of a lady: BLU
M, p. 59.
CHAPTER 8 • SHOCK IN PINK
1 about to give him a present: Meredith Etherington-Smith, The Persistence of Memory, p. 225.
2 “an extremely elegant”: DAL, p. 166.
3 a mesmerizing conversationalist: DAL, p. 165.
4 “stuffed with steak”: Ibid.
5 some piped-in heavy breathing: DAL, p. 166.
6 the affair of the polar bear: BET, notebooks and letters.
7 the first real Parisian boutique: BLUM, p. 71.
8 “After each opening”: BAL, p. 64.
9 “the top magazines”: BAL, p. 62.
10 Beaton wrote: Cecil Beaton, Photobiography, p. 224.
11 Schiaparelli wrote: SH, p. 63.
12 wearing a slinky black dress: Women’s Wear Daily, January 16, 1930.
13 heavy “crepon”: Women’s Wear Daily, June 29, 1930.
14 a fur coat and cloche hat: Vogue, September 1929.
15 a Schiaparelli pajama suit: Vogue, July 1930.
16 a future prime minister: Wilmington (DE) Morning News, November 8, 1940.
17 she “didn’t know”: New York Tribune, July 16, 1934.
18 “red for the left”: New York American, August 6, 1934.
19 “A Gotham Beauty’s Sway”: Sunday Mirror, July 22, 1934.
20 Gaston stepped in: October 17, 1931.
21 Bettina ran away: Mary Thacher chronology, p. 8.
22 “any woman who flirted”: BAL, p. 78.
23 Abbot’s Hill as “medieval”: HB, August 1993.
24 a pub crawl: SH, p. 97.
25 her own pink silk sheets: BAL, p. 61.
26 old sweatshirts: Vogue, July 15, 1939.
27 “popular spoiled pet”: BAL, p. 61.
28 a difficult time: New York Post, February 2, 1941.
29 “was asked in marriage”: SH, p. 99.
30 a large heart: SH, p. 100.
31 “squared her shoulders”: SH, p. 66.
32 “At the Place Vendôme”: SH, p. 74.
33 Bettina Bergery wrote: memo to Schiaparelli, BET, p. 156 ff.
34 “certain special beauty”: SH, p. 74.
35 approachable and cuddly: BLUM, p. 162.
36 Arletty … was ideally suited: She wore it in the film Je te confie ma femme (1933).
37 did not seem to mind: BLUM, p. 191.
38 “Tables glittered”: John Richardson, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, p. 213.
39 another of his successes: Ibid.
40 “spoiled, generous, sly”: Richardson, p. 117.
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