As Daniel Roseberry‘s latest Schiaparelli couture collection dominated the conversation following his Paris Couture Week presentation, Southampton Arts Center turned its attention to the House’s remarkable past. On Thursday, July 9, Lydia Caston, Exhibitions Project Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, discussed Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art, the landmark exhibition on view in London through November 8, 2026.
Hosted by Palm Beachers Audrey Gruss and Jamee Gregory in partnership with the V&A Americas Foundation, the talk offered audiences a rare opportunity to hear directly from one of the exhibition’s curators.
Skeleton Dress, designed by Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí, 1938. V&A © 2025 Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, DACS. Photograph © Emil Larsson
“I am delighted to have visited Southampton Arts Center to speak about the V&A’s most recent fashion exhibition, Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art, the first of its kind in the UK,” says Caston. “The exhibition celebrates the extraordinary career and creative contributions of Elsa Schiaparelli, who transformed herself from an untrained outsider to the leading couturière of interwar Paris. She founded her fashion house in 1927 and entered a world alive with artistic experimentation, forging her most enduring alliances with avant-garde artists such as Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau. I love sharing her fascinating story, as well as her enduring legacy at the House today through the work of current creative director Daniel Roseberry.”
Lydia Caston, Exhibitions Project Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum
Spanning the late 1920s to the present day, Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art traces the evolution of one of fashion’s most original creative voices. Bringing together more than 400 objects, including over 100 ensembles alongside artworks, jewelry, photography, perfumes, archival material, and contemporary couture by Daniel Roseberry, it is the first exhibition in the United Kingdom dedicated to the House of Schiaparelli.
The exhibition places Schiaparelli within the artistic circles that shaped her work, rather than treating her designs in isolation. Collaborations with Salvador Dalí, Jean Cocteau, Man Ray, Pablo Picasso, and other leading figures of the Surrealist movement reveal how she blurred the boundaries between couture, art, and performance, creating pieces whose influence continues to shape fashion today.
Elsa Schiaparelli in her boutique at 21 Place Vendôme, Harper’s Bazaar, October 1935. Photograph by François Kollar
Among the exhibition’s highlights are the 1938 Skeleton Dress, the Tears Dress, Dalí’s whimsical Shoe Hat, and the remarkable evening coat designed with Jean Cocteau, whose embroidered lines form two facing profiles that simultaneously reveal a vase of roses. The exhibition concludes with Daniel Roseberry’s contemporary creations for the House, including couture worn by Ariana Grande and Dua Lipa, demonstrating how Schiaparelli’s surrealist vocabulary continues to resonate today.
Evening coat, designed by Elsa Schiaparelli and Jean Cocteau, 1937, London, England © 2025 ADAGP DACS Comite Cocteau, Paris. Photograph © Emil Larsson
