In 1937, Elsa Schiaparelli launched her perfume Shocking, the bottle and packaging of which were designed by the Argentinian-born artist Leonor Fini. Shocking is also the name Elsa gave to an intense shade of pink.

In his memoirs, Schiaparelli writes:

"The name had to begin with S, as this was one of my superstitions. Finding a name for a perfume is a complex problem because every word in the dictionary seems to have been trademarked. The color appeared to me in a flash, luminous, impossible, impudent, alive like all the light and the birds and fish of the world put together, a color of China and Peru, but not of the West. A shocking color, pure and undiluted. So I named the perfume Shocking."

The bottle is shaped like a dressmaker's mannequin, with a measuring tape around the neckline sealed by a monogrammed "S" patch and small flowers around the neck. The mannequin's shape is inspired by the curves of actress Mae West, the Hollywood sex symbol of the time. The bottle was placed under a glass dome, a reference to those in which late 19th-century brides kept their flower crowns.