Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli

A dazzling first-person picture book biography of the life of fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli by gifted team Kyo Maclear and Julie Morstad. Backmatter included. Beauty . . . Color . . . Doubts . . . As a little girl in Rome, Elsa Schiaparelli’s mamma told her she was not pretty. What is beauty? Elsa wondered as she grew older. So she sought out beauty around her and found it everywhere: in the colors and scents of the Rome flower market, in the garden, and in the attic of her family home, buried in a chest of old dresses. She found affection from her dear uncle in Milano. “Voliamo,” said Uncle Giovanni. “Let’s fly!” And Elsa did fly! “Schiap,” as she later called herself, developed an artist’s eye and imagination. These bloomed in the wildly imaginative dresses, hats, shoes, and jewelry that made her an important name in fashion. Defining beauty on her own creative and rebellious terms was the key to Elsa Schiaparelli’s happiness and success—and is still seen today in her legacy of wild imagination. Daring and different, Elsa Schiaparelli used art to make fashion, and it was quite marvelous.

“The duo behind Julia, Child offers a bold first-person biography of designer Elsa Schiaparelli.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “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...[It’s] a dramatic tribute worthy of its audacious subject.” — Publishers Weekly (starred 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.” — Booklist “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.” — Booklist “Little ones who “dare to be different” will be inspired.” — Booklist “In full scenes and vignettes, Morstad’s mixed-media paintings capture the lanky, classy panache of Schiap and her designs.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books “Using Schiaparelli herself as narrator, this picture-book biography tells the story of her unsettled childhood and rise to premier couturier for a young audience.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books “Together Maclear and Morstad have created a picture book that, like Elsa’s art, is “daring, different, and whole” and that reminds us that “together, we BLOOM and BLOOM.”” — Jennifer Oleinik, Shelf Awareness (blog) “Morstad’s (When Green Becomes Tomatoes) lush illustrations match Maclear’s enlightening narrative... [her] illustrations rise and fall with Elsa’s emotional and artistic journey.” — Jennifer Oleinik, Shelf Awareness (blog)

Kyo Maclear is the author of many books for children, including Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli, and some for adults. When she was a little girl, she wanted very badly to be a fashion designer. She spent countless hours drawing odd dresses, including a very special cloud dress. Her style muses include her mother, Patti Smith, the residents of Moominvalley, and anyone with a sense of casual and androgynous flair. Though she loved writing about Schiaparelli’s signature color, shocking pink, Kyo’s own favorite color is blue. She plants her garden with flowers in all shades of blue, and in spring when they bloom, it’s a blue extravaganza. Kyo makes her home in Toronto, where she lives with her two sons and husband, a musician. You can find her at www.kyomaclearkids.com.  Julie Morstad is the author and illustrator of Today and How To. She has illustrated many books for children, including Swan, The Dress and the Girl, This Is Sadie, and Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Julie makes her home in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she lives with her family. You can find her at www.juliemorstad.com.