From March 21 to November 1, 2026, the Victoria &amp; Albert Museum in London will present &ldquo;Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art,&rdquo; the first British exhibition dedicated to designer Elsa Schiaparelli. This ambitious retrospective will bring together over 200 exhibits, tracing the evolution of the fashion house from its debut in the 1920s to the contemporary creations of Daniel Rosberry.

The Victoria &amp; Albert Museum is preparing a large-scale exhibition that will be the first in the UK to be entirely dedicated to the legendary Elsa Schiaparelli. The multidisciplinary retrospective will feature dresses, accessories, artwork, photographs, interior design pieces, and archival materials, showcasing the innovative scale of a personality who redefined the boundaries between fashion and art.
Schiaparelli was a visual intellectual and pioneer, capable of weaving tailoring expertise with surrealism in a continuous dialogue with the cultural avant-garde movements of her time. Born in Rome in 1890, Elsa Schiaparelli established herself in Parisian fashion in the 1930s as one of the most radical voices in couture.
In an era dominated by the rationality of modernism, her fashion was dreamlike, playful, and at times provocative. As a friend and collaborator of Salvador Dal&iacute;, Jean Cocteau, Man Ray, and other members of the European avant-garde, Schiaparelli transformed the female body into a canvas and a stage, creating pieces that are now considered true works of art.

The exhibition will feature some of the designer's most famous creations from the V&amp;A collection, including the iconic Skeleton Dress, the Tears dress, and the shoe-hat created in collaboration with Dal&iacute;&mdash;seminal examples of her bold and visionary style.&nbsp;Significant attention will be given to the London fashion house, which has rarely been documented before, and to the independent clients who brought the London branch to life. After decades of silence, the revival of Schiaparelli in 2019 under the direction of Daniel Rosberg has once again drawn attention to the legacy of its founder. Rozberry has reinterpreted the designer's language through a contemporary aesthetic, while keeping the spirit of experimentation intact. His recent collections, often in the spotlight on red carpets and in pop culture, confirm Schiaparelli's role as an avant-garde fashion house.
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Tristram Hunt, director of the V&amp;A, said: &ldquo;Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art will celebrate a woman whose vision transformed the very concept of fashion, demonstrating how it could become a fully-fledged art form.&rdquo;
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This exhibition continues the V&amp;A's tradition of presenting fashion as a cultural and artistic phenomenon, paying tribute to one of the most fascinating and unconventional figures of the 20th century.

The exhibition will be an important event for understanding how fashion can transcend functionality and become a means of artistic expression. Elsa Schiaparelli's legacy and Daniel Rosberry's contemporary vision demonstrate the continuity of the house's creative evolution, where the boundary between fashion and art is finally blurred.

Victoria & Albert in London to host exhibition “Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art”

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