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The Victoria and Albert Museum has a long and distinguished history of staging fashion exhibitions that transcend their subject matter — becoming cultural events in their own right, drawing visitors from across the world, and changing the way we think about clothing, creativity, and identity. From Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty to Dior: Designer of Dreams, the V&A’s fashion blockbusters have set a standard that few museums anywhere in the world can match.
Now, opening at the V&A South Kensington from 28 March 2026, comes the museum’s next great fashion event: Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art — a landmark exhibition celebrating one of the twentieth century’s most radical, visionary, and endlessly fascinating fashion designers.
Who Was Elsa Schiaparelli?
Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973) was an Italian-born fashion designer who worked primarily in Paris during the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. In a field dominated by elegance, refinement, and a certain Parisian formality, Schiaparelli was something utterly different: a provocateur, a surrealist, an artist who used clothing as a medium for exploring the stranger, darker, more playful possibilities of human experience.
Her collaborations with artists including Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau produced some of the most extraordinary garments ever made — including the famous Lobster Dress (a simple white silk evening gown painted with a large red lobster by Dalí), the Shoe Hat (a high-heeled shoe worn on the head), and a jacket with bureau drawers in place of pockets. These were not eccentric one-offs but fully realised artistic statements — fashion as Surrealist sculpture, as conceptual art, as a witty and transgressive commentary on the conventions of femininity and desire.
What Will the Exhibition Include?
The V&A’s exhibition promises to be the most comprehensive survey of Schiaparelli’s work ever staged in the UK. It will trace the full arc of her extraordinary career — from her early career-defining knitwear with its trompe l’oeil bow collar, to the high period of her Paris couture house, to her later years and the enduring influence of her work on contemporary fashion.
Highlights will include:
- Original garments from Schiaparelli’s couture archive, many of which have rarely or never been displayed publicly
- Collaborative artworks made with Dalí, Cocteau, and other Surrealist artists
- Accessories, jewellery, and perfume bottles that demonstrate the full range of Schiaparelli’s creative vision
- Documentation of the remarkable fashion house that Schiaparelli herself closed in 1954 — and which was spectacularly revived by creative director Daniel Roseberry in 2012
- Contemporary work from the relaunched Schiaparelli house, demonstrating how her legacy continues to shape fashion in the twenty-first century
The Schiaparelli House Today
One of the most exciting aspects of this exhibition is its dual focus: not just on Elsa Schiaparelli’s historic work, but on the contemporary fashion house that bears her name. Under the creative direction of American designer Daniel Roseberry, Schiaparelli has become one of the most talked-about luxury fashion houses in the world — worn by Beyoncé, Cate Blanchett, and Doja Cat, and regularly producing show-stopping moments at major awards ceremonies and fashion events.
Roseberry’s approach shares Schiaparelli’s foundational commitment to the idea of fashion as art — of clothing as a medium for exploring the human body, human desire, and human creativity in ways that go far beyond mere dress. The exhibition will explore this continuity between the founder and the contemporary house in genuinely illuminating ways.
Why This Exhibition Matters
Fashion exhibitions have sometimes been accused of being mere spectacle — glamorous showcases that dazzle without challenging. The best V&A fashion exhibitions have always done something more than that, using clothing as a lens through which to explore art history, social history, gender politics, and the nature of creativity itself.
Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art promises to do exactly that. Schiaparelli’s work is not just beautiful — it is genuinely radical, genuinely funny, and genuinely strange. It asks real questions about the relationship between fashion and art, between the body and imagination, between convention and transgression. An exhibition devoted to her legacy should provoke, delight, and inspire in equal measure.
Practical Information
Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art opens at the V&A South Kensington on 28 March 2026. The V&A is located on Cromwell Road in South Kensington, easily accessible by Tube (South Kensington station, served by the Piccadilly, Circle, and District lines — note Tube disruptions in March, plan accordingly). Tickets are bookable through the V&A website. Given the anticipated popularity of this exhibition, booking in advance is strongly recommended.
Whether you’re a fashion lover, an art history enthusiast, a Surrealism devotee, or simply someone who believes that the things we wear can tell us something profound about who we are — this exhibition belongs on your calendar. Do not miss it.
