Shocked: My Mother, Schiaparelli, and Me

From the acclaimed author of Stuffed: an intimate, richly illustrated memoir, written with charm and panache, that juxtaposes two fascinating lives€"the iconoclastic designer Elsa Schiaparelli and the author€s own mother€"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 family€s garment district restaurant. Elsa Schiaparelli€"€œSchiap€€"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.

Audrey€s daughter Patricia read Schiap€s autobiography, Shocking Life, at a tender age, and was transformed by it. These two women€"volatile, opinionated, and brilliant each in her own way€"offered Patricia contrasting lessons about womanhood and personal style that allowed her to plot her own course.

Moving seamlessly between the Volks€ Manhattan and Florida milieux and Schiap€s life in Rome and Paris (among friends such as Dal­, Duchamp, and Picasso), Shocked weaves Audrey€s traditional notions of domesticity with Schiaparelli€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.