![\"Schiaparelli](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Schiaparelli_-Fashion-Becomes-Art-at-VA-South-Kensington-c-Victoria-and-Albert-Museum-London-14.jpg?w=400\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\tThe show pays special attention to Schiaparelli\u2019s collaborations with artists, particularly Salvador Dal\u00ed; the show includes the only known surviving example of the Skeleton dress the two collaborated on and the Tears dress from the same year, as well as a hat resembling an upside-down shoe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cFor me, dress designing is not a profession but an art,\u201d Schiaparelli once said, and, funny enough, Coco Chanel once dismissed her as \u201cthat Italian artist who\u2019s making clothes.\u201d In fact, Schiaparelli collaborated with other Surrealist painters, sculptors, and writers, including Alberto Giacometti, Meret Oppenheim, and Jean Schlumberger, with whom she shared a sensibility that favored the subversive and absurd.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd fittingly enough, artists turned their attention to the master designer herself. The show features portraits of Schiaparelli by Pablo Picasso and Man Ray as well as artworks created for her by Eileen Agar and Jean Cocteau.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tTaking the show up to the present day are Roseberry\u2019s unique look for top performance artists like Ariana Grande and Dua Lipa.<\/p>\n
\u201cSchiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art\u201d will be at the V&A, Sainsbury Gallery, March 28\u2013November 8, 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tSurrealist master Man Ray created a number of portraits of the Italian designer, some quite experimental, some in which she wears her own designs. Here, her head appears atop a torso that at once recalls a dressmaker\u2019s mannequin and fragmented classical artworks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \n\tOne of Salvador Dal\u00ed\u2019s most famous creations is the Lobster Telephone <\/em>(1936), which he also called the \u201cAphrodisiac Telephone\u201d and was created for British poet and arts patron Edward James, one of Dal\u00ed\u2019s key patrons in the late 1930s. Plaster lobster receivers were made to fit the telephones at James\u2019s homes. The next year, Schiaparelli would design a dress decorated with a lobster motif, inspired by this artwork, which would be featured in an eight-page spread in Vogue<\/em> shot by Cecil Beaton.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \n\tThe 1938 Skeleton dress bore padded representations of the human bones that lay underneath the wearer\u2019s skin, testing notions of good taste. It was presented as part of Schiaparelli\u2019s famed Circus Collection of 1938, in which models wore clown hats and balloon-shaped handbags.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \n\tSchiaparelli launched her perfume Shocking in 1937, with a bottle and packaging designed by Argentinian-born artist Leonor Fini; Schiaparelli also dubbed the intense shade of pink with the same name. The bottle takes the shape of a dressmaker\u2019s mannequin with a measuring tape around the neckline, sealed with a monogrammed S patch and flowers at the neck. For inspiration for the curves, credit the physique of Hollywood star and sex symbol Mae West. The bottle appears in a glass dome, reminiscent of those that brides used to preserve their flower crowns.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \n\tDesigned by Salvador Dal\u00ed, the slender Tears evening gown and accompanying veil have seemingly been torn with numerous trompe-l\u2019oeil<\/em> rips, cut out and lined in pink and magenta. The look was part of her famed Circus Collection of 1938, presented in a high-energy show and featuring clothes decorated with acrobats and performing animals. The Tears gown echoed some of the Catalan artist\u2019s paintings featuring people in ripped skin-tight clothing that, for some, too closely resembled flayed flesh. Schiaparelli counted one such painting among her collection.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \n\tSurrealist muse and artist Nusch \u00c9luard (also wife of poet Paul \u00c9luard) was known for sporting styles by Schiaparelli. In this portrait by Pablo Picasso, she wears jewelry and a hat from the Haute Couture Winter 1937\u201338 collection; the cherub-shaped lapel pins are a design for Schiaparelli by Jean Schlumberger.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/list\/artnews\/news\/elsa-schiaparelli-gets-her-uk-museum-debut-at-the-va-in-a-show-featuring-dali-man-ray-and-picasso-1234778897\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Schiaparelli_-Fashion-Becomes-Art-at-VA-South-Kensington-c-Victoria-and-Albert-Museum-London-7.jpg?w=1024″] The UK has never before seen an exhibition of the legendary Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, and now more than 400 objects are going on view at the V&A, including 100 ensembles and 50 artworks, along with accessories, jewelry, paintings, photographs, furniture, perfumes, and items from the archive. \u201cSchiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1849797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1849797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849797\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1849797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1849797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1849797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Man Ray Does Schiaparelli<\/h2>\n
Dal\u00ed\u2019s Plastic Fantastic Lobster Telephone<\/h2>\n
![\"Salvador](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Lobster-Telephone.-1938-Salvador-Dali-c-Salvador-Dali-Gala-Salvador-Dali-FoundationDACS-London-2026.jpg?w=400\")
A Skeleton in the Closet<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Skeleton-Dress-designed-by-Elsa-Schiaparelli-and-Salvador-Dali-1938.-VA-2025-Salvador-Dali-Fundacio-Gala-Salvador-Dali-DACS.-Photograph-Emil-Larsson.jpg?w=400\")
Shocking Pink and Sex Symbol Curves<\/h2>\n
![\"Under](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Leonor-Fini-for-Schiaparelli-perfume-bottle-%E2%80%98Shocking-1937-2025-ADAGP-Paris-and-DACS-London.-Photo_-Patrimoine-Schiaparelli-Paris.-Photograph-Emil-Larsson-.jpg?w=400\")
Rips and Tears Fool the Eye<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Tears-dress-with-veil-designed-by-Elsa-Schiaparelli-and-Salvador-Dali.-Summer-1938.-Photograph-Emil-Larsson.jpg?w=400\")
Picasso Paints an Icon, Wearing Iconic Looks<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Portrait-of-Nusch-Eluard-by-Pablo-Picasso.-Oil-on-canvas-1937-opyright-GrandPalaisRmn-musee-national-Picasso-Paris-Adrien-Didierjean.jpg?w=400\")