Artist, impresario, couturier: V&A to stage Schiaparelli retrospective

"I don't consider Elsa to be a dressmaker, says Roseberry. She was an image-maker, a culture creator, and she has been our north star with every red carpet moment since."

"Surreality abounds, thanks in no small part to Schiaparelli's many collaborations with artists including Jean Cocteau and Salvador Dali, including the skeleton dress, a macabre design with padded black bones, and a hat made to look like an upside-down shoe, both designed with Dali in the late 1930s."

"The lion dress is sadly not among the 400 objects in the exhibition, which also includes paintings, sculpture and furniture. But surreality abounds, thanks in no small part to Schiaparelli's many collaborations with artists including Jean Cocteau and Salvador Dali."

Elsa Schiaparelli, an Italian fashion founder, established herself as an image-maker and culture creator rather than a conventional dressmaker, collaborating with artists like Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau to produce surrealist designs. Her iconic pieces include a skeleton dress with padded bones and a shoe-shaped hat, both created with Dali in the late 1930s. Current artistic director Daniel Roseberry has revitalized the nearly century-old Paris fashion house through bold red carpet moments, such as Kylie Jenner's viral lion head dress in 2023. The V&A's new exhibition features 400 objects spanning from the mid-1930s to present day, including paintings, sculpture, furniture, and intimate personal pieces, establishing Schiaparelli as a culture-defining brand that thrives on surreality and artistic collaboration.

Read at www.theguardian.com