{"id":568336,"date":"2026-03-27T18:36:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T18:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/568336\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T18:36:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T18:36:22","slug":"schiaparelli-takes-the-va-in-first-uk-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/568336\/","title":{"rendered":"schiaparelli takes the V&A in first UK exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"

fashion enters the realm of art at the V&A<\/p>\n

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Positioning fashion as a site of artistic production rather than adornment, Victoria and Albert Museum<\/a> (V&A)\u2019s\u00a0 Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art exhibition reframes Elsa Schiaparelli as a key figure who dissolved the boundary between couture and avant-garde practice, bringing her surrealist collaborations into direct dialogue with contemporary fashion under Daniel Roseberry\u2019s creative direction.<\/p>\n

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On view until March 28th, 2026, the first exhibition in the UK devoted entirely to the house of Elsa Schiaparelli, staged at the Sainsbury Gallery, spans nearly a century of radical design, tracing the couturier\u2019s trajectory from her experimental beginnings in 1920s Paris to the contemporary revival of the maison. Bringing together more than 400 objects, including garments, artworks, accessories, and archival material, the exhibition positions Schiaparelli as a central figure operating between fashion, art, and performance. Her oft-cited statement that dressmaking is art rather than a profession frames the curatorial approach.<\/p>\n

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At the core of the exhibition is Schiaparelli\u2019s dialogue with the avant-garde. Collaborations with figures such as Salvador Dal\u00ed, Jean Cocteau, Man Ray, and Pablo Picasso reveal a practice grounded in surrealist experimentation and cultural exchange. Among the highlights are the 1938 Skeleton dress and the Tears dress, alongside Dal\u00ed\u2019s iconic Lobster Telephone, presented in dialogue with the Lobster dress that inspired it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"schiaparelli's
Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art at V&A South Kensington | images courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London, unless stated otherwise<\/p>\n

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Elsa Schiaparelli\u2019s legacy from paris to london and beyond<\/p>\n

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A dedicated section of the V&A exhibition explores the lesser-known London chapter of the house, foregrounding Schiaparelli\u2019s expansion into Mayfair in the 1930s and her engagement with British clients and creatives. Garments produced for the London salon, alongside portraits and commissions, underscore her role as both designer and self-mythologizing figure operating across Paris, London, and New York.<\/p>\n

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Her work for theater and cinema further extends this reach, with costumes designed for performers such as Marlene Dietrich and Mae West reinforcing the performative dimension of her practice.<\/p>\n

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The exhibition concludes with A Golden Thread, a section dedicated to the house\u2019s<\/a> present-day evolution under Daniel Roseberry. Since 2019, Roseberry has reactivated Schiaparelli\u2019s surrealist vocabulary through sculptural couture, worn by contemporary figures such as Ariana Grande and Dua Lipa.<\/p>\n

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The show frames Schiaparelli\u2019s legacy as an ongoing project rather than a closed chapter, one that continues to shape contemporary visual culture through its hybrid language of fashion and art.<\/p>\n

\"schiaparelli's
the exhibition positions fashion as a site of artistic production<\/p>\n

\"schiaparelli's
reframing Elsa Schiaparelli as a key figure who dissolved the boundary between couture and avant-garde practice<\/p>\n

\"schiaparelli's
bringing her surrealist collaborations into direct dialogue with contemporary fashion under Daniel Roseberry<\/p>\n

\"schiaparelli's
the first exhibition in the UK devoted entirely to the house of Elsa Schiaparelli<\/p>\n

\"schiaparelli's
staged at the Sainsbury Gallery<\/p>\n

\"schiaparelli's
the show brings together more than 400 objects<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"fashion enters the realm of art at the V&A \u00a0 Positioning fashion as a site of artistic production…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134,247174],"class_list":{"0":"post-568336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-va"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}