V&A to Stage the UK’s First Major Elsa Schiaparelli Exhibition, With 400-Plus Objects Spanning Fashion and Surrealism
London is preparing for a landmark fashion exhibition: the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) will present the United Kingdom’s first show dedicated to Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973), bringing together more than 400 objects that map her singular fusion of couture, art, and performance.
Titled “Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art,” the exhibition will open in the V&A’s Sainsbury Gallery on March 28, 2026, and run through November 8. The presentation includes roughly 100 ensembles and 50 artworks, alongside accessories, jewelry, paintings, photographs, furniture, perfumes, and archival materials.
The show’s scope stretches from Schiaparelli’s earliest designs of the 1920s to the present day, incorporating contemporary looks created under the house’s current creative director, Daniel Roseberry. In a statement, V&A director Tristram Hunt described the designer as “one of the most ingenious and daring” figures in fashion history, noting that the museum holds “the foremost collection of Schiaparelli garments in Britain.”
Curated by Sonnet Stanfill, Lydia Caston, and Rosalind McKever, the exhibition places particular emphasis on Schiaparelli’s collaborations with artists — a defining feature of her practice and a key reason her work continues to resonate beyond the runway. Among the most anticipated inclusions are pieces tied to her partnership with Spanish Surrealist Salvador Dalí (1904–1989): the exhibition will feature the only known surviving example of their 1938 “Skeleton Dress,” the “Tears Dress” from the same year, and a hat that transforms an everyday object into a visual joke — an upside-down shoe.
Schiaparelli’s own view of her discipline is expected to echo throughout the galleries. “For me, dress designing is not a profession but an art,” she once said. Her approach — witty, subversive, and often deliberately absurd — drew her into the orbit of Surrealist painters, sculptors, and writers, including Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966), German-born artist Meret Oppenheim (1913–1985), and French jewelry designer Jean Schlumberger (1907–1987).
The exhibition also turns the lens back onto Schiaparelli as a subject for artists. Visitors will see portraits by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) and American artist Man Ray (1890–1976), as well as works made for her by British artist Eileen Agar (1899–1991) and French artist Jean Cocteau (1889–1963).
Bringing the narrative into the 21st century, the show includes Roseberry’s high-impact designs created for major performance artists, including Ariana Grande and Dua Lipa — a reminder that Schiaparelli’s legacy is not only preserved in museum collections, but actively reinterpreted on contemporary stages.
“Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art” will be on view at the V&A, Sainsbury Gallery, from March 28 to November 8, 2026.
