Some of history’s famous female feuds have turned ugly. From verbal lashings — Joan Crawford and Bette Davis sniped at each other for over 40 years. To assault — Tonya Harding had Nancy Kerrigan kneecapped. To the drastic — Queen Elizabeth I had her rival Mary Queen of Scots beheaded. To the inflammatory — Coco Chanel set her nemesis Elsa Schiaparelli on fire.
That last one is less dramatic than it sounds.
Although she would change and embellish her origin story, Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel was born in a French poorhouse in 1883 to a laundrywoman and itinerant seller of clothing. When she was 11, her mother died and Coco and her sisters were sent to an orphanage. There she learned to sew and at 17 she used those skills to find work as a seamstress. In the evenings she would sing in cabarets where she adopted the stage name Coco.
It was also where she met the earliest of her rich and powerful lovers, textile heir Etienne Balsan who moved her into his chateau and showered her with jewelry. It was there that she began an affair with his friend, Englishman Arthur Capel. Both men are said to have influenced her characteristic style and it was Capel who financed her first boutique. Initially producing hats, she expanded into clothing becoming one of the most sought-after designers in Europe.
Elsa Schiaparelli was born in Italy in 1890 to an aristocratic mother and a scholarly father. She lived a comfortable life in Rome, well educated and intellectually curious. She came to chafe against the confines of her family and craved adventure. When her parents urged her to marry a wealthy Russian suitor, she escaped to London where she met her husband Wilhem de Kerlor. Claiming to possess psychic powers, he was by all accounts a con man. When he was convicted and deported for fortune-telling, the couple moved to New York where he opened a “Bureau of Psychology” and continued his charlatan ways. After the birth of their daughter, nicknamed Gogo, de Kerlor abandoned the family and Elsa eventually moved to Paris.
Thanks to her aristocratic background, Elsa was embraced by Parisian society. Determined to become financially independent from her parents she began designing clothes. With no training in sewing, construction or pattern making her early efforts were unwearable. What she lacked in skill she made up for in imagination and her friendships with artists, most notably Salvador Dali, pushed her to experiment with innovative materials and designs. Her signature pink color and highly embellished clothes were in stark contrast to Chanel’s tailored suits and signature little black dresses.
Coco, threatened by the newcomer, took an immediate dislike to Elsa. She criticized everything from her skills to her designs to her signature pink, calling it “a pink that sets the teeth on edge.” Even so, they ran in the same social sets and outwardly appeared friendly. It was at a costume ball where Coco invited Elsa to dance with her, then backed her into candles lighting her outfit on fire. Guests used soda water to put out the flames.
Their competition heated up when Elsa befriended the surrealist artists whom Coco had considered friends and supporters. When Coco was lured to Hollywood to design for Samuel Goldwyn’s stars, she relished the idea of leaving “that Italian” behind. Elsa was happy to see “that hatmaker” go. But the Chanel style proved too bland for Hollywood stars like Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo and Mae West, who preferred the theatrics of the Schiaparelli clothes, contributing to their rivalry.
When Time Magazine featured Elsa on their cover, the first time a designer had been honored, Coco was outraged. Then Wallis Simpson appeared in Elsa’s Lobster Dress to announce her marriage to the abdicated King of England. It was the largest insult to date, given that Chanel had been a preferred clothier for the royal family.
Their feud continued with competing fragrances and stolen celebrity clients until World War II saw the closing of both fashion houses, pressing pause on their rivalry. After the war the House of Chanel successfully reopened but the House of Schiaparelli struggled and closed in 1954. Coco Chanel remained the queen of haute couture until her death in 1971, the victor in their rivalry. Elsa Schiaparelli died in 1973, 40 years before her brand would relaunch in 2013.