On art, design, Schiaparelli and Collier Campbell
Two important London exhibitions have just opened, both celebrating influential female designers in fashion and textiles.
Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art at the V&A Museum (until 8 November 2026) is vast and brilliant, a survey of the incredible originality and collaborative spirit of Elsa Schiaparelli. Displaying clothing, fragrance, jewellery, accessories, furniture and costume design from the 1920s to the 1950s, highlights of her audacious, art-leaning designs include fur cuffs, egg minaudieres, a hat that thinks it’s a shoe (designed with Salvador Dalí) and an evening coat designed with Jean Cocteau’s illustrative facial profiles that double as a vase of pink silk roses (above).
While Schiaparelli may be famous for such surrealist statement pieces, there are also examples of more everyday wear, such as trousers for women (unusual at the time) and the early female-empowerment suits with ample ‘cash and carry pockets’ to replace the need for a handbag during wartime. (more…)
