Curator's Picks: 9 Highlights from V&A's Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art

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With Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art, the V&A examines a designer who refused to separate fashion from art. Senior fashion curator Sonnet Stanfill talks Cabana through the "career highlight" exhibition and eight works that define Schiaparelli’s legacy.

INTERVIEW BY EMMA BECQUE| CABANA TRAVEL | 10 MARCH 2026

Vogue 1940; Designer Elsa Schiaparelli wearing black silk dress with crocheted collar of her own design and a turban (Photo by Fredrich Baker Condé Nast via Getty Images).

“In 1939, Schiaparelli was quoted in the newsletter of the Fashion Group of Great Britain: ‘Clothes must be as modern as the world we live in’,” references Sonnet Stanfill, curator of Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art at the V&A. The remark captures the restless spirit of a designer who brought Surrealism into couture, creating garments that blurred the boundaries among fashion, art and performance, from lobster-printed silk gowns to skeletal evening dresses and the electrifying shade known as shocking pink.

Stanfill, whose curatorial work at the V&A has long focused on 20th and 21st century fashion, brings decades of scholarship to the project. “I studied History of Art at university and then did an MA in the History of Dress at the Courtauld Institute. I’m fortunate that much of my career has unfolded at the V&A. I focus mainly on fashion since 1900 and have curated exhibitions such as New York Fashion Now (2007), Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950 (2012), The Glamour of Italian Fashion (2014), and NAOMI: In Fashion (2024–25).”

Lobster Dress by Elsa Schiaparelli, designed in collaboration with Salvador Dalí. Paris, Summer 1937. Silk organza © 2025 Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, DACS. Photo, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of Mme Elsa Schiapa.

“The house of Schiaparelli has never had a major retrospective in the UK, which presented a wonderful opportunity,” Stanfill notes, pointing to the strength of the V&A’s own holdings, including designs that have never been exhibited or have remained unseen for decades. “I first discussed the idea of this exhibition in a conversation with our Director of Exhibitions, Daniel Slater, seven years ago,” she continues.

“I have long admired the garments designed by Elsa Schiaparelli in the V&A’s collection, and it has been exciting to observe how successful the current Creative Director, Daniel Roseberry, has been in reviving the house’s reputation as the go-to source for notable couture. Bringing together the inventive, creative and sometimes unsettling designs of Elsa Schiaparelli with the contemporary haute couture of Daniel Roseberry has been a career highlight.”

Research undertaken for the exhibition has also illuminated Schiaparelli’s ties to Britain. “I learned so much about the importance of Elsa Schiaparelli’s London couture business,” Stanfill explains. From 1933 until the outbreak of the Second World War, she operated Schiaparelli London Ltd. from Upper Grosvenor Street in Mayfair, dressing clients including Lady Jane Clark, Maud Russell and aviator Amy Johnson, while regularly travelling to Britain to source textiles such as Irish linens and Scottish wools.

For the curatorial team, examining garments in person proved essential when “seeing the objects up close, which allows you to understand the textiles, the construction techniques and the breathtaking embroidery,” Stanfill says. “You begin to notice clues, whether a label comes from the London or Paris branch, the famous Schiaparelli zips, or the amusing buttons shaped as acrobats, butterflies or mermaids.”

In this spirit, Sonnet Stanfill shares her highlights from the exhibit.

Trompe l’oeil sweater, Elsa Schiaparelli, 1927

Elsa Schiaparelli in her boutique at 21 Place Vendôme, Harper's Bazaar, October 1935. Photograph by François Kollar © GrandPalaisRmn - Gestion droit d'auteur François Kollar.

"For Elsa Schiaparelli, it started with a sweater. Schiaparelli’s first solo collection, designed in January 1927, featured geometric-patterned black-and-white knitwear. A turning point came a few months later when she commissioned an Armenian maker, Aroosiag Mikaëlian, to knit a sweater with a jaunty bow‑knot motif. Part of Schiaparelli’s November 1927 collection, the sweater became an instant and much‑copied hit. The press remarked on its amusing trompe l ’oeil pattern and the complex two‑tone knitting technique, which gave a tweed-like appearance."

Shoe hat, Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí, 1937-38

Lobster Telephone. 1938, Salvador Dalí (c) Salvador Dalí, Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, DACS, London 2026.

“Surrealism turned the world on its head. Allowing the subconscious mind to express itself, surrealism explored the erotic potential of clothing from head to toe. The Shoe hat was inspired by Gala Dalí placing a shoe on her husband, Salvador’s, head. Gala owned this version of the hat with a Shocking Pink heel, while others are completely black.”

Dress and lungs necklace, Schiaparelli by Daniel Roseberry, Autumn/Winter 2021

Schiaparelli by Daniel Roseberry Long sheath gown, Matador Couture collection Haute couture fall-winter 2021–2022 Wool crepe. Gilded brass necklace adorned with rhinestones in the shape of lungs. Patrimoine Schiaparelli, Paris. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

“Disembodied fragments of anatomy bring a deeper psychological dimension to Roseberry’s garments, accentuating and reversing form. In this dramatic gown, internal organs appear to rise to the surface with a crystal‑encrusted brass necklace in the shape of lungs. By playing a game of concealing and revealing a low‑cut neckline, the piece creates a surrealist statement.” 

Skelton dress, Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí, Summer 1938 

Skeleton Dress, designed by Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí, 1938. V&A © 2025 Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, DACS. Photograph © Emil Larsson.

“This dress is the first garment you will see when you enter the exhibition and is one of the most remarkable of Elsa Schiaparelli’s career, is indicative of her multi‑faceted legacy. Her collaboration with Salvador Dalí reflects her deep connections with the leading artists of the time. The padded construction that shapes the dress’s deathly form exemplifies her predilection for employing unusual techniques to create designs that shocked.”

Circus collection evening suit, Elsa Schiaparelli, Summer 1938

Schiaparelli Haute Couture Fall Winter 2024 Look 26. Photo © Giovanni Giannoni. Photo courtesy Patrimoine Schiaparelli, Paris.

“Schiaparelli announced the Summer 1938 Circus collection as a dazzling spectacle, ’ A circus on Main Street with elephants, apples and toffee… and prints which challenge Barnum’s title [as] the greatest show on Earth ’. Showcasing the designer’s irrepressible creativity, the collection was popular with her fashionably adventurous clients and it received wide press coverage. This evening suit features circus horses prancing across the jacket front, and it’s fastened by buttons shaped like acrobats.”

Evening coat, Elsa Schiaparelli, Autumn 1937

Evening coat, designed by Elsa Schiaparelli and Jean Cocteau, 1937, London, England © 2025 ADAGP DACS Comite Cocteau, Paris. Photograph © Emil Larsson.

“Schiaparelli launched her Autumn 1937 collection to mark the Exposition Internationale in Paris, where she exhibited alongside other artists and designers, many reviving an aesthetic inspired by ancient Greece and Rome.

In this coat, Jean Cocteau blended classical motifs and surrealist techniques in his illustration of mirrored, kissing faces which, in profile, trace an urn of roses and a draped cloth. The image was embroidered onto the reverse of this evening coat, with stitched golden lines creating an illusionistic fluted column below the urn.”

Wedding dress, Daniel Roseberry, Fall/Winter 2024

Schiaparelli Haute Couture Fall Winter 2024 Look 30. Photo © Giovanni Giannoni. Photo courtesy of Patrimoine Schiaparelli, Paris.

“The exhibition features over two dozen Daniel Roseberry designs, creative director of Maison Schiaparelli since 2019, and this is a particularly special one. Roseberry creates spectacularly crafted garments that challenge perceptions and incorporate wit and the unexpected.

Sparks of inspiration can range from a texture, a button, an accessory, a colour or more literal references that entirely reimagine an Elsa Schiaparelli silhouette to extreme exaggeration. This delicate and glamorous wedding dress features a tulle skirt sprinkled with crystals. Its sizeable circumference creates a highly sculptural silhouette that will look dramatic on display.”

Leonor Fini for Schiaparelli, perfume bottle ‘Shocking’ 1937 

Leonor Fini for Schiaparelli, perfume bottle ‘Shocking’, 1937 © 2025 ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London. Photo: Patrimoine Schiaparelli, Paris. Photograph © Emil Larsson.

“Shocking was Schiaparelli’s most successful perfume, a scent launched in 1937. Schiaparelli commissioned her friend, artist Leonor Fini, to design the bottle. Its distinctive shape was modelled on the dress form of actress Mae West, then in Schiaparelli’s atelier (workshop), and featured a measuring tape around the shoulders.

 The measuring tape has become a significant design code for the fashion house today. The unusual bottle design is displayed alongside her other perfumes, many of which also had bottles which were highly distinctive or whimsical.”