London's Victoria and Albert Museum (the V&A) will stage the UK’s first major exhibition dedicated to the Maison Schiaparelli next spring, opening on 28 March 2026. The show, titled Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art, will examine the evolution and influence of the house from its emergence in the late 1920s to its contemporary presence in global fashion.
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| Vogue 1940; Designer Elsa Schiaparelli wearing black silk dress with crocheted collar of her own design and a turban. (Photo by Fredrich BakerCondé Nast via Getty Images). |
Curators say the exhibition will position founder Elsa Schiaparelli at the heart of a transatlantic creative milieu spanning Paris, London, and New York. Drawing on newly conducted research, the presentation will explore Schiaparelli’s work as an early and unusually forward-looking fashion entrepreneur, foregrounding her collaborative relationships with leading artists of the twentieth century.
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| Evening coat, designed by Elsa Schiaparelli and Jean Cocteau, 1937, London, England © 2025 ADAGP DACS Comite Cocteau, Paris. Photograph © Emil Larsson. |
More than 200 objects—including garments, accessories, jewellery, artworks, perfumes, and archival documents—will illustrate the house’s aesthetic innovation and its enduring role in shaping fashion discourse.
Choker by Schiaparelli, Pagan collection, Fall 1938. Photograph © Emil Larsson.
Key pieces from the museum’s collection will be on display, among them the renowned ‘Skeleton’ and ‘Tears’ dresses, as well as the surrealist Shoe Hat created with Salvador Dalí. Works by Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau and Man Ray will accompany the fashion displays, underscoring the house’s longstanding integration of fine art and couture practice.
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| 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. |
The exhibition will conclude with the modern era under creative director Daniel Roseberry, whose designs from the maison’s historic headquarters at 21 Place Vendôme continue to reinterpret Schiaparelli’s bold, idiosyncratic visual language for contemporary audiences.
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| Skeleton Dress, designed by Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí, 1938. V&A © 2025 Salvador Dali, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, DACS. Photograph © Emil Larsson. |
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| Portrait of Elsa Schiaparelli by Man Ray, 1933 © 2025 Man Ray 2015 Trust. DACS, London. Photo: Collection SFMOMA. The Helen Crocker Russell and William H. and Ethel W. Crocker Family Funds purchase. |
Born in Rome in 1890, Elsa Schiaparelli rose from an academically inclined family to become one of the most influential couturiers of the interwar period. After moving to Paris in the 1920s, she established her own fashion house and quickly distinguished herself through designs that challenged conventional silhouettes, embraced avant-garde ideas, and merged fashion with the visual arts. Her collaborations with leading surrealists, her inventive use of materials, and her theatrical approach to presentation secured her reputation as a visionary. Forced to close her couture house in the 1950s, she spent her later years writing and consulting until her death in 1973. Today, her legacy endures in the continued relevance of her aesthetic vocabulary and in the maison that still bears her name.
Understanding the influence of Maison Schiaparelli is significant for interpreting the landscape of modern fashion and lifestyle culture. Many of the maison’s early innovations—its integration of artistic collaboration, its subversion of traditional dress codes, and its deliberate use of clothing as a medium for storytelling—have become defining characteristics of contemporary design. The house’s approach to bold self-expression, theatricality, and the merging of couture with popular culture can be traced in the work of leading designers, the aesthetics of red-carpet dressing, and the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of global fashion. As a result, Schiaparelli’s legacy provides an essential lens through which to understand the evolution of personal style and the broader cultural appetite for boundary-pushing creativity.
Images courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum.
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