As a landmark exhibition on avant-garde fashion house Schiaparelli opens at London’s V&A, curator Sonnet Stanfill walks Dezeen through five highlights and hidden gems you won’t want to miss.
Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art is the first UK exhibition dedicated to the maison founded by the late Elsa Schiaparelli in 1927, known for interpreting the interwar surrealist movement through cloth.
Among the 400 objects on show are some of the Parisian fashion house’s most celebrated yet little-seen pieces, including the only surviving Skeleton dress designed by Schiaparelli and artist Salvador Dalí in 1938.
“I think there could be a misconception that she simply took surrealist motifs and stuck them on her clothes, when in fact, she was an active collaborative partner in the design process,” V&A senior curator of fashion Sonnet Stanfill told Dezeen.
“Her clothes were an expression of a surrealist aesthetic that reflected her role as an active protagonist in the surrealist movement. And in fact, people considered her couture salon in Paris as the beating heart of the surrealist movement.”
At the V&A, this creative dialogue is visualised through more than 50 pieces of art, including Dalí’s famous lobster telephone, placed alongside some 100 Schiaparelli garments.
The exhibition design by London studio Nebbia fosters a sense of surrealism by guiding visitors to double back on themselves several times throughout the show to see the same object from a different perspective and create a feeling of deja vu.
But, Stanfill also wanted to go beyond Schiaparelli’s blockbuster collaborations to highlight some lesser charted parts of her work – her unexpected focus on practicality, for example, and her pieces for private clients at the house’s historic London branch in Mayfair.
“Her most remembered garments, because they’re the most notable and visually shocking in some ways, are her collaborations with Dalí and with Jean Cocteau,” the curator explained.
“But I hope that that’s not all she’ll be remembered for in history books, and that’s something that we work really hard to show, is that there’s so much else aside from the surrealist collaborations,” she continued.
“We are trying to highlight things that perhaps other exhibitions and other publications didn’t delve into too deeply.”
This also includes her leading work for stage and screen, which speaks to Schiaparelli’s ability to capture the attention economy long before such a term even existed.
“If you take, for example, a theatre production on the West End in London in the 1930s, if it was a long run and all the seats were full, that could reach a quarter of a million people,” Stanfill explained.
“And if your name as the fashion designer is in the programme as costuming the leading lady – gowns by Schiaparelli, with the address of where you can buy the clothes – that was the equivalent of a kind of Instagram account.”
In many ways, Stanfill says, this talent is mirrored in Schiaparelli’s current creative director, Daniel Roseberry, who has led the fashion house since 2019.
Through pieces such as his trompe l’oeil and faux taxidermy gowns, the American designer has managed to bring a new generation of famous fans to the label, who epitomise the social media generation, whether Bella Hadid or the Kardashians.
“Daniel Roseberry has captured the imagination of the social media world,” Stanfill said.
“Schiaparelli is celebrating its 100th anniversary next year, and across the century, there is this incredible shared skill at communicating the creative process to a wide audience. They may not even be clients or particularly knowledgeable about fashion. But I think one doesn’t have to be, to understand it.”
Read on for five key pieces to look out for in the exhibition.
Evening suit by Elsa Schiaparelli, Autumn 1937
“This suit was one of several Schiaparelli ensembles from the Autumn 1937 season to feature jackets with intricate embroidery around the collar and down the centre front, a nod to the habit à la française – the most formal and luxurious man’s attire of the late eighteenth century.
“Such complex surface decoration epitomises the highly skilled embroidery executed for Schiaparelli in the workshops of the specialist firm Lesage. The suit was worn by Lady Alexandra Haig, who chose to wear it in a portrait published in society magazine The Tatler in January 1938.”
Shocking perfume bottle by Lenor Fini, 1937
“Schiaparelli commissioned her friend, artist Leonor Fini, to design the bottle of her most famous perfume, Shocking. Its shape was modelled on the dress form of actress Mae West, then in Schiaparelli’s atelier, and featured a measuring tape around the shoulders.
“Fini, whose surrealist artworks often referenced clothing, was disappointed by the addition of small flowers to her design by Schiaparelli’s commercial director.”
Skeleton dress by Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí, Summer 1938
“This is the first Elsa Schiaparelli dress you will see in the exhibition. It’s significant because Schiaparelli collaborated with artist Salvador Dalí to create it. Together, they brought a skeleton to life using the trapunto quilting technique, stitching the outline through two layers of fabric with wadding.
“The sheer material, combined with the padded spine, ribcage, collarbones and hip joints, implies we are seeing the wearer’s own flesh and bones. It is the only known original of the Skeleton dress.”
Lobster telephone by Salvador Dalí, 1938
“Lobsters were a prevailing motif for Salvador Dalí, who considered them sexually charged. For Schiaparelli beachwear, he drew a lobster among parsley, which was transferred to silk by designer Paul Sache. For Schiaparelli’s Summer 1937 collection, he then proposed applying the design to a simple high‑waisted dinner dress, suggestively positioning the creature on the skirt.
“When poet Edward James commissioned Dalí to make the Lobster Telephone, which the artist created in 1938, it reflected the free flow of ideas between artist, designer and writer.”
Custom gown for Ariana Grande by Daniel Roseberry, 2025
“Nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her role in the musical Wicked, Ariana Grande took centre stage in this glittering gown at the 2025 Oscars.
“The heel at the back pays homage to Dorothy’s ruby slippers from the original 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. It also alludes to Elsa Schiaparelli’s Shoe hat, created in collaboration with Salvador Dalí.”
Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art takes place from 28 March to 1 November 2026 at the V&A. For more up-to-date events in architecture and design around the world, visit Dezeen Events Guide.