Patricia Volk's glittering memoir, written with charm, panache and wit, juxtaposes the lives of two women - the iconoclastic fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli and the author's own mother - to tell the story of how young Patricia learnt the art of being a woman.

"Nothing short of delicious... Sharp-eyed as it is wickedly funny... Witty, tender and vividly nostalgic." Kirkus "Ignoring Schiaparelli is to ignore fashion and art. Soon everyone will be reminded who Schiap is." -- Ines De La Fressange author of Parisian Chic "Thought-provoking and delightful. I love the way Volk transforms the apparently frivolous and, often, outmoded details of femininity - how to order a fur coat, for example, or how to lay a formal table - into valuable lessons for life. Completely beguiling." -- Lucy Moore author of Anything Goes "A moving and entertaining double memoir" -- Anne De Courcy author of The Fishing Fleet: Husband-Hunting in the Raj "Pure joy... A diptych portrayal of Patricia Volk's gorgeous and infuriating mother and the great fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, this is an irresistible tour de force that puts on display Volk's intelligence, wit and sparkling prose." -- Louis Begley

Patricia Volk is the author of the memoir Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family and four works of fiction. She was a toddler when her mother began wearing 'Shocking' perfume by Elsa Schiaparelli and ten years old when she came across Schiaparelli's autobiography in her mother's library. She closed the book's covers transformed... A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Volk has taught at Columbia University, NYU and Bennington and has written for numerous publications. She lives in New York.