The Victoria and Albert Museum is staging a major retrospective of Elsa Schiaparelli, the Italian designer known for her surrealist collaborations and showmanship. The exhibition, the UK's first dedicated to Schiaparelli, features over 400 objects including fashion, paintings, sculpture, and furniture, aiming to position her as an artist and impresario as much as a couturier.
Senior fashion curator Sonnet Stanfill notes that Schiaparelli was a great self-publicist who used collaborations with artists like Jean Cocteau and Salvador Dalí to generate publicity. Highlights include the skeleton dress and a hat shaped like an upside-down shoe, both designed with Dalí in the late 1930s. The exhibition also includes intimate pieces such as a wedding dress worn to a Golders Green synagogue and leopard print booties that Schiaparelli never removed.
The retrospective draws parallels between Schiaparelli's moment-making approach and that of current artistic director Daniel Roseberry, whose designs for celebrities like Kylie Jenner and Bella Hadid have revived the fashion house's viral presence. Stanfill describes the connection as uncanny, noting that both mastered capturing the attention economy in their respective eras.
The V&A hopes the exhibition will attract crowds similar to its 2019 Dior show, which drew over half a million visitors. The timing coincides with Roseberry's autumn/winter collection, which incorporates Schiaparelli's signature trompe l'oeil and anatomical hardware, such as egret feet dangling from a bag.
