Elsa Schiaparelli’s “Sleeping de Schiaparelli” Perfume Sachets

“Sleeping,” is one of many perfumes Schiaparelli designed, debuted for her summer 1940 collection. For her spring 1939 Commedia dell’ arte collection, Schiaparelli had been inspired by Man Ray’s 1939 painting, “Le Beaux Temps,” designing a patchwork harlequin coat based on the painting. As Dilys Blum, author of “Shocking! The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli,” points out, the perfume bottle mirrors the candle form with conical snuffer depicted in the harlequin’s head of Ray’s painting. Billed as a night perfume, it was meant to be spritzed the moment before falling into bed, and the scent was supposed to illuminate the subconscious and “light the way to ecstasy,” according to an ad illustrated by Marcel Vertès. The turquoise blue of the packaging was also a new color for the summer 1940 collection, called Sleeping blue