If anyone still doubts that fashion belongs in a museum, Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum offers a rather fabulous rebuttal.
The exhibition celebrates Elsa Schiaparelli, the couturière who refused to see clothing as merely something to wear. Instead, she treated fashion as art, collaborating with surrealist giants including Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau to create some of the most extraordinary designs of the twentieth century. Think skeleton dresses, shoe hats and embroidery that still feels delightfully rebellious.
Rather than simply looking back, the exhibition cleverly connects Schiaparelli’s fearless imagination to the House today. Under creative director Daniel Roseberry, surrealism has found a new audience through sculptural couture worn by the likes of Ariana Grande and Dua Lipa.
One of the exhibition’s most surprising elements is its focus on Schiaparelli’s London story, revealing how the Maison established itself in Mayfair and captivated a generation of stylish British women.
What lingers after your visit isn’t just the craftsmanship, although that’s exceptional, but Schiaparelli’s reminder that fashion doesn’t always have to be sensible. Sometimes it should simply make you smile, stop in your tracks or ask, “Who on earth thought of that?”
Nearly a century later, Elsa Schiaparelli’s answer remains the same: imagination first.
Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art
The Sainsbury Gallery
28 March – 8 November 2026