In this portrait of Elsa Schiaparelli painted by the artist Marcel Vertès, the designer wears one of the dresses from her Summer 1938 Le Cirque (Circus) Haute Couture collection.
Vertès created other, very personal works for his friend Elsa Schiaparelli, such as a folding screen with motifs from the Comedia dell'Arte and Le Cirque (Circus) collections, and a gigantic collage of Elsa's creations and the main symbols which characterised her work.