It wasn’t Roland Penrose, nor was it Herbert Read. It wasn’t André Breton, nor even Peggy Guggenheim. No, it was Elsa Schiaparelli who first brought surrealism to London – three years before the landmark London ‘International Surrealist Exhibition’ opened in 1936. When the Italian fashion designer introduced her extraordinary designs to Britain via her Mayfair store, it became the first surrealist space in the country. It is hard to imagine how the sight of this very foreign incarnation of flamboyance and glamour would have appeared to Depression-era Londoners, but, of course, Schiaparelli lived to shock.
This revelation, of the designer’s immeasurable impact on British art and cultural history, is brought to the fore at V&A South Kensington’s excellent ‘Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art’, which opens on 28 March 2026. The first of its kind in the UK, the show comprises over 200 objects, including garments, accessories, jewellery, paintings, photographs, sculpture, furniture and perfumes, from the 1920s to the present day – with a particular emphasis on the reciprocal relationship that Schiap, as she was known, had with the avant-garde art scene of interwar Europe.
‘Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art’ at the V&A
A series of early trompe l’oeil sweaters by Elsa Schiaparelli
‘It started,’ we are told, ‘with a sweater.’ In 1927, Schiap debuted her famous tromp l’oeil sweater, a black-and-white knit with a bow effect in pour le sport style, by wearing it herself to a party. It was an instant hit, and the ‘things are not as they seem’ approach to design remained a hallmark of her creations for the rest of her life. In fact, Schiap’s cultural fluency, which put her totally in step with the modernist zeitgeist, was already being cultivated pre-sweater. Born to an erudite, aristocratic family in Rome’s Palazzo Corsini, today a Baroque art museum, Schiap was exposed to modern art from an early age, attending lectures given by Italian futurists and later moving in bohemian circles following a move to New York City during her short-lived marriage. It was here she was introduced by her friends Gaby and Francis Picabia to some of the key players in the nascent surrealist movement – relationships that would shape the direction of her work for years to come.
What did this influence look like? Unlike some of the other artists in Breton’s surrealist orbit, Schiap wasn’t utilising techniques such as automatic drawing or harnessing the subconscious to unlock creative potential, yet her preoccupation with quintessential surrealist themes and motifs – the uncanny, the fragmented, the animalistic – placed her firmly within their world. A silk dress from the 1938 ‘Circus’ collection is printed to look like fabric being torn away to expose pink negative space beneath; the inspiration for the silhouette is taken from Salvador Dalí’s Necrophiliac Spring (1936), but the tromp l’oeil is pure René Magritte. An evening coat designed in collaboration with the artist, poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau features the double image of two faces in profile and a vase of roses in bloom atop a plinth. A sculptural evening coat from circa 1937, made from bulbous gilt braid, sits somewhere between scarecrow and papal cassock. Virtually every fastening, whether zip or button, is an opportunity for intrigue: a smart wool suit is finished with discreet buttons featuring Commedia dell'arte masks, a sleeveless, body-contouring dress of ruched silk jersey features a suggestive front zip from hem to belly button.
A series of gowns by Daniel Roseberry, the current creative director of the fashion house
‘I think it's interesting how Schiaparelli's fashion kind of flips a surrealist interest, particularly in accessories,’ Dr Rosalind McKever, the V&A’s curator of paintings and drawings, tells Wallpaper*. ‘Gloves, hats, shoes are all fetishised objects which were of real interest to the surrealists because of their ability to stand in for fragmented body parts. And so Schiaparelli takes those images, and kind of flips them back on themselves.’ If it feels as though design is fundamentally at odds with surrealist methodology, then objects such as these say otherwise.
’Elsa’s focus wasn't just on good taste or lifestyle or even beauty, it was more cerebral than that’
Daniel Roseberry, Schiaparelli creative director
Like others in the movement, Schiap was an enthusiastic collaborator. The exhibition is peppered with examples of works created in conjunction with her artistic contemporaries, from the iconic bust-shaped perfume bottle for ‘Shocking’, designed by Argentinian artist Leonor Fini, to the A-line dress with Dalí’s phallic painted-lobster printed onto its skirt, worn by Wallis Simpson before her marriage to Edward VIII, or a painted screen and Garden of Earthly Delights-esque collage by Marcel Vertès.
Daniel Roseberry, creative director for the house since 2019, following its resurrection five years prior, explains the importance of these exchanges. ‘There was a distance between culture and most French couture houses back then,’ he tells Wallpaper*. ‘Elsa’s focus wasn't just on good taste or lifestyle or even beauty, it was more cerebral than that. It was about how the expression of the surreal can create a more intimate connection between art, pop culture and fashion and between the designer and client.’
Vintage Schiaparelli perfume bottles, many of which were collaborations with artists
Roseberry’s contemporary take on Schiap’s original propositions also plays a role in the show – and presents a very clear picture of just how culture has changed in the years since her death, in 1973. Where Schiap’s designs are full of subtle witticisms and cheeky visual puns, Roseberry’s tenure at the brand reads more like a nuclear bomb – bold, and unmissable. What was shocking or outrageous then just won’t cut it in the attention economy, and so the solution for Roseberry is to go bigger. ‘I think that this age will be remembered less for global conflict and more for the rise of social media, alternate realities and the lack of connection that we have with each other,’ he says. ‘The language that Elsa used to address her political reality, we're using to address our digital reality.
‘My mission now is to pierce that digital veil and create moments of lasting connection. Fashion is ancient, it’s pre-biblical,’ he continues. ‘People are always going to want to decorate, adorn, and express, but we've never lived in a more performative era. Designing a link between expression and genuine connection is something that feels urgent.’
‘Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art’ runs at the V&A from 28 March 2026
A display of Schiaparelli millinery. The exhibition features numerous accessories by both Elsa Schiaparelli and Daniel Roseberry