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\nThe ‘Skeleton Dress’, designed by Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dal\u00ed, 1938 (Emil Larsson\/V&A\/PA)<\/p>\n
From red-carpet gowns worn by Ariana Grande to surrealist skeleton dresses, Elsa Schiaparelli\u2019s designs have long blurred the line between fashion and art.<\/p>\n
Now, a new exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum brings that legacy into focus, pairing historic couture with contemporary looks worn by figures including Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande and Kendall Jenner.<\/p>\n
The exhibition, Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art, traces the work of the Italian-born designer, who established her Paris couture house in the late Twenties and became known for bold, unconventional designs that challenged traditional ideas of dress.<\/p>\n
\nThe ‘Skeleton Dress’, designed by Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dal\u00ed, 1938 (Emil Larsson\/V&A\/PA)<\/p>\n
The V&A\u2019s senior curator of fashion, Sonnet Stanfill, says that the moment Schiaparelli\u2019s work moved beyond fashion into art can be traced to the mid-Thirties.<\/p>\n
“I think that from 1935, we know she started working very closely with the surrealist artist Salvador Dal\u00ed,” Stanfill says. “That starts small with a group of powder compacts [\u2026] and then moves on to garments like the tears dress, the skeleton dress and others.”<\/p>\n
Schiaparelli described the process as “exhilarating” in her autobiography, Shocking Life.<\/p>\n
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\nA silk evening coat made by Elsa Schiaparelli with embroidered drawings by Jean Cocteau from the designer’s 1937 collection (David Parry\/PA)<\/p>\n
Collaborations with artists<\/p>\n
Schiaparelli\u2019s relationship with artists went far beyond influence. While many designers socialised with artists, they rarely worked with them directly \u2013 yet she actively built collaboration into her collections.<\/p>\n
When asked whether Schiaparelli was a designer influenced by artists or an artist in her own right, Stanfill says: “Both \u2013 she is someone who worked very closely with the leading artists of her time [\u2026] and she said, \u2018dressmaking, for me, is not a profession, but an art.'”<\/p>\n
Her work with figures including Jean Cocteau and Dal\u00ed helped define a new approach to couture \u2013 one that treated garments as creative works in their own right.<\/p>\n
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\nDesigner Elsa Schiaparelli wearing a black silk dress with crocheted collar of her own design (Fredrich Baker\/Cond\u00e9 Nast\/PA)<\/p>\n
Unlike contemporaries such as Coco Chanel, who moved in artistic circles, Schiaparelli actively collaborated with artists and made that exchange central to her identity.<\/p>\n
“She even announced it in one press release,” Stanfill notes. “It was very integral to her concept of herself as a maker [\u2026] that she was collaborating with artists.”<\/p>\n
Crucially, those relationships worked both ways.<\/p>\n
“She was in a different league [\u2026] in terms of her actually working collaboratively and exchanging ideas, and also being the inspiration for the artists themselves.”<\/p>\n
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\nElsa Schiaparelli is shown here with a model at 21 Place Vendome. Getty Images.<\/p>\n
Schiaparelli\u2019s London operation<\/p>\n
If Paris provided the avant-garde backdrop for Schiaparelli\u2019s rise, London offered a different kind of stage.<\/p>\n
She opened a London branch of her business in 1933 in Mayfair, then the centre of luxury shopping in the capital.<\/p>\n
Describing it as “the most masculine city in the world”, and its inhabitants as “mad, mad, mad”, Schiaparelli did not initially appear an obvious fit for British society.<\/p>\n
Yet her London clientele proved anything but conservative.<\/p>\n
“One might assume [\u2026] that maybe the British clients weren\u2019t as daring as the people that shopped in Paris,” Stanfill says.<\/p>\n
“But actually, when you look at the clothes, you see there\u2019s vibrant colour [\u2026] unusual textile prints [\u2026] and some of her more outrageous designs were bought and worn by British clients.”<\/p>\n
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\nThe bare-breasted mermaid button of Lady Jane Clark’s Coronation coat (Lara Owen\/PA)<\/p>\n
The London operation, which ran until 1939, allowed clients to buy directly without import duties and attend presentations locally.<\/p>\n
Among them were a wide range of high-profile women, from actress Marlene Dietrich to aviator Amy Johnson and art collector Maud Russell.<\/p>\n
“I think she called her clients those \u2018glittering personalities,\u2019” says Stanfill.<\/p>\n
That spirit is perhaps best illustrated by Lady Jane Clark, who wore Schiaparelli to the 1937 Coronation \u2013 complete with a coat fastened by a button shaped like a bare-breasted mermaid.<\/p>\n
“The fact that that was worn to the coronation [\u2026] I find that kind of sums up a lot of the Schiaparelli client spirit,” Stanfill laughs.<\/p>\n
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Use of colour, materials and detail<\/p>\n
While Schiaparelli\u2019s silhouettes often followed the prevailing styles of the Thirties, it was in the details that her work stood apart.<\/p>\n
Rather than radically altering shape, she focused on colour, embellishment and materials.<\/p>\n
“Her silhouettes didn\u2019t veer dramatically away from what was fashionable,” Stanfill says, “but if you think about the colours [\u2026] she was quite a strong colourist.”<\/p>\n
She describes combinations such as “a beetroot red with a salmon pink” or “a dusty brown evening dress with a bright green feathered capelet”.<\/p>\n
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Schiaparelli also pushed material innovation, working with unusual textiles including cellophane, rotophane and even woven glass.<\/p>\n
“She really pushed [\u2026] to ensure that her house was associated with the most innovative and unusual materials,” says Stanfill.<\/p>\n
Her collaborations with embroidery house Lesage resulted in richly embellished garments that she describes as “a kind of fantasy of couture technique and embellishment”.<\/p>\n
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Then and now<\/p>\n
Although Schiaparelli closed her couture house in 1954, the brand remained dormant for decades before being revived and returning to the Paris couture calendar in 2014.<\/p>\n
Today, under creative director Daniel Roseberry, the house has found a new audience through social media and red carpet fashion.<\/p>\n
“I think that Daniel Roseberry is incredibly adept at capturing the attention economy,” Stanfill says.<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s not beholden to the history of the house [\u2026] he takes it as a departure point and translates it into something for a contemporary audience.”<\/p>\n
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Appointed in 2019, Roseberry has helped reintroduce Schiaparelli to a global audience, with sculptural couture regularly appearing on major red carpets.<\/p>\n
For many, those high-profile celebrity moments like Kendall Jenner on the runway or Demi Moore on the red carpet, provide a first encounter with the house\u2019s distinctive aesthetic.<\/p>\n
Among celebrity highlights in the exhibition are the striking red and sculptural pink couture dresses worn by Ariana Grande to the 2025 Oscars \u2013 examples of how the house continues to capture global attention nearly a century after it was founded.<\/p>\n
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Exhibition overview<\/p>\n
Spanning from the Twenties to the present day, the exhibition brings together around 200 objects, including some of Schiaparelli\u2019s most radical designs alongside contemporary couture.<\/p>\n