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Next spring, the V&A South Kensington will unveil a new fashion exhibition, exploring Elsa Schiaparelli’s legacy through a Surrealist lens that challenged conventions and redefined the boundaries of fashion. Opening in March 2026 in the museum’s Sainsbury Gallery, ‘Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art’ is the first UK exhibition devoted to the trailblazing couturière. The announcement comes in the wake of the maison’s artistic director Daniel Roseberry’s latest haute couture show in Paris, which will also feature in the exhibition.
The installation will invite visitors to reimagine the everyday, as objects are transformed into artifacts of wit, fantasy, and theatrical flair. More than 200 archive exhibits, ranging from couture and jewelry to sculpture and scent, will be on display, showcasing the house’s radical beginnings and its contemporary reinvention under Roseberry. The iconic Skeleton dress and Tears gown, created in collaboration with Salvador Dalí, are set to be exhibited alongside works by Picasso, Cocteau and Man Ray. The retrospective will explore Schaparelli’s artistic partnerships, while spotlighting the lesser-known history of the brand’s London branch.
The maison’s legacy looms large in the canon of 20th-century design. Renowned for her eccentric garments and witty, unconventional style, Elsa Schiaparelli saw fashion as a medium for both self-expression and cultural commentary. A mistress of transformation, she fused satire, sensuality, and surprise in her avant-garde silhouettes, noting that “in difficult times, fashion is always outrageous.”
The curation will bridge multiple eras, tracing Schiaparelli’s lineage through to Roseberry’s fantastical couture creations, worn by powerhouse women including Beyoncé, Zendaya and Dua Lipa. At 21 Place Vendôme, the designer’s spirit lives on in gilded corsets, celestial bodices, and sculpted leather roses.
“This exhibition celebrates her enduring influence through iconic collaborations with 20th-century masters and a pioneering fusion of creativity and commerce,” says Schiaparelli’s CEO Delphine Bellini. The V&A director Tristram Hunt echoes the sentiment, describing the maison as “an ideal subject for a spectacular exhibition at the V&A” and the scale of the loans as “unprecedented.”
The show follows in the footsteps of blockbuster fashion exhibitions at the museum from ‘Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams’ to ‘Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto.’ With ‘Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art,’ the V&A continues its role as a guardian of fashion history, offering a display of couture and an immersive exploration of a house’s legacy.
‘Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art’ runs from 21 March to 1 November 2026 at the V&A South Kensington. Tickets will be available here.
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