Schiaparelli's Surreal Fashion Artistry Dazzles at V&A London Exhibition
The V&A South Kensington in London has launched a lavish spring exhibition dedicated to Elsa Schiaparelli, the Italian designer renowned for her bracingly avant-garde and mildly upsetting creations. This dazzling show invites visitors to sashay through a surreal party in 1930s Paris, celebrating Schiaparelli's witty and artistic approach to fashion that out-lobstered Salvador Dalí and turned a polar bear pink.
A Weird and Wonderful Journey into Surrealism
From naked mermaids and prancing horses to silk carrots and unshelled peanuts, the exhibition is a weird and wonderful tumble down the rabbit hole of Schiaparelli's house of surrealism. The designer crafted clothes to be humorous and thought-provoking, not merely pretty, infusing each piece with a lively spirit that challenges conventional beauty standards. A shoe transforms into a hat, bones protrude from a dress, and a telephone dial becomes a compact mirror, showcasing her genius for visual puns and in-jokes.
Walking through the galleries feels less like admiring a beauty pageant and more like attending a 1930s Paris cocktail party with Schiaparelli and her friends, including Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau. The experience is bracingly avant-garde and mildly unsettling, with never a dull moment. For instance, visitors can turn a corner from a Man Ray painting to encounter a mannequin wearing a jacket adorned with gold palm trees at the shoulders, blending wild creativity with functional design.
Schiaparelli as an Artist, Not Just a Designer
Coco Chanel, Schiaparelli's contemporary and frenemy, once dismissively called her "that Italian artist who makes clothes." However, this exhibition reframes that label as a compliment, arguing that Schiaparelli was not merely a fashion designer who associated with surrealist artists but an artist in her own right. A key example is the display of Dalí's lobster telephone alongside the lobster dress, famously worn by Wallis Simpson, which Schiaparelli created in collaboration with Dalí a year earlier.
Next to her iconic skeleton dress from 1938, another Dalí collaboration featuring padded ribs and a spine of cotton wadding on black crepe, a letter from Dalí credits the "bones on the outside" idea to Schiaparelli. This highlights her central role in surrealist innovations. Additionally, a Picasso portrait of Nusch Éluard in Schiaparelli attire, with a hat shaped like a horseshoe, captures a moment when Picasso was so mesmerized by her outfit that he insisted on painting her immediately.
Early Life and Career of a Surrealist Pioneer
Born into a smart family in Rome in 1890, Schiaparelli seemed born with surrealism in her bones. In her memoir, she recounts a childhood attempt to plant flower seeds in her mouth, nose, and ears, hoping to bloom "like a heavenly garden" to overcome feelings of plainness compared to her sister. This early, unconventional thinking foreshadowed her future in avant-garde design.
After moving to London in her 20s and arriving in Paris in her 30s as a divorced mother supporting a baby daughter, Schiaparelli launched her fashion career with trompe l'oeil sweaters featuring knitted optical illusions. Within years, she employed 400 staff and was hailed by Vogue as "the designer of the most exciting clothes in Paris." The exhibition's first room shows her photographed in a dark suit and brogues in her Paris studio, with Napoleon's column visible behind her, emphasizing her formidable presence.
Shocking Pink and Performance Art
Known to friends as Schiap, she loved to shock, with shocking pink as her favorite color and brand signature. A taxidermied pink polar bear once graced her shop window, and she was buried in pink after her death in 1973. The exhibition includes a coat made for Jane Clark for the 1937 coronation, fastened with a single button shaped like a naked mermaid at the bosom, demonstrating that fashion as performance art predates modern trends like the Kardashians or the Met Gala.
Schiaparelli emerges as a prescient figure who collaborated across cultural spheres to explore creativity and promote her brand nearly a century ahead of her time. Daniel Roseberry, the American designer leading the brand's current revival since 2019, holds his own in the exhibition with modern pieces interspersed with the archive. Roseberry captures the humour, glamour, and eroticism of Schiaparelli, leaning into the oddness while maintaining clear thinking to prevent jokes from dissolving into mere comedy.
Modern Resonance and Cultural Impact
A younger audience familiar with Schiaparelli through TikTok and viral red carpet moments will delight in seeing iconic pieces like the gilded brass breastplate worn by Bella Hadid at Cannes in 2021, shaped like a pair of lungs, and the "robot baby" made from old flip phones and circuit boards featured on a 2024 runway. These items highlight the brand's ongoing relevance and innovation.
Schiaparelli's reputation hinges on one's view of fashion mixing with art. Those who believe fashion should stay in its lane may not appreciate this show, but those who value clothes that are outrageous, intelligent, and in dialogue with culture will find it captivating. Most importantly, no one will be bored. The exhibition, titled Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art, runs at the V&A South Kensington in London from 28 March to 8 November 2026, offering a unique exploration of surreal fashion artistry.
