The images are indelible. The Duchess of Windsor stands in a garden, holding bouquets of branches, in a dress detailed with a two-foot lobster. Actress Ina Claire, sporting a playfully cockeyed hat that points heavenward and a frisky little Empire-waist jacket, raises a...

Elsa Schiaparelli is not a name that automatically resonates with the high glamour associated with her arch-rival Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel. Yet it was her creations that almost single-handedly contributed to fashion's shift in stares from craft albeit elevated--to art, as an exhibition which...