The V & A Museum will organize First Schiaparelli in the United Kingdom in 2026

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London will open in March 2026 the first exhibition dedicated to Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli and his homonym firm in the United Kingdom, the institution announced Wednesday in a statement.

The exhibition “Schiaparelli: Fashion turned into art” will arrive in the British capital between March 21 and November 1, 2026, and will cover the trajectory of the brand from the 1920s to the present, as well as the impact of its creator on the history of fashion and other artistic disciplines.

In this sense, the role of Elsa Schiaparelli will highlight as “an innovation link and a key figure within a star sphere of fashion, art and acting”, which covered the cities of Paris, London and New York between the two world wars and even their retirement in 1954.

The exhibition will have more than 200 objects, which include “garments, accessories, jewels, paintings, photographs, sculptures, furniture, perfumes and file material” of the Schiaparelli house, “the museum explained in a note.

Among them will be some of the most iconic and “radical” designs of Couturier, such as their “skeleton” and “tears” dresses, designed in collaboration with the Spanish surreal artist Salvador Dalí and the collection of the British art institution.

The exhibition will also refer to the popularity of Schiaparelli's designs in film and theater productions and will include works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau and Man Ray.

The director of V&A, Tristram Hunt said that the V&A has one of the largest fashion collections in the world and the most prominent in the case of Schiaparelli's designs, so that his collaboration with other artists and the performative world “makes the firm and its founder an ideal theme for a spectacular exhibition in the V&A”.

“The brave imagination and the radical vision of Elsa Schiaparelli redefined the boundaries between fashion and art. This exhibition celebrates it as a lasting influence through iconic collaborations with teachers of the twentieth century and for its pioneer fusion of creativity and commerce,” he added.

“Schiaparelli: Fashion turned into art” is the last show of the V&M series dedicated to fashion figures, which have explored Christian Dior, Alexander McQueen or, more recently, the British model Naomi Campbell.

Tickets for the exhibition, curated by Sonnet Stanfill, Lydia Caston and Rosalind Mckever, will go on sale in autumn 2025.