V&A to open huge Schiaparelli fashion exhibition in March 2026
- maxwell museums
- Dec 24, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 3
A major Schiaparelli exhibition will open at the V&A in London’s South Kensington in March 2026, in what is expected to be one of the year’s most popular museum shows in the city.
Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art will be the first exhibition ever staged in the UK devoted to the Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Staged in the V&A’s huge Sainsbury Gallery from 28 March until 08 November 2026, the exhibition will explore the first, groundbreaking designs by Schiaparelli, through to the major fashion house’s present-day incarnation in the hands of its creative director, Daniel Roseberry.
Sir Tristram Hunt, the newly-knighted Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, said that Schiaparelli was “an ideal subject” for an exhibition at the V&A, because the museum already has “one of the largest and most important fashion collections in the world, and the foremost collection of Schiaparelli garments in Britain.”
The show is expected to be hugely popular, like many of the other blockbuster fashion exhibitions recently hosted by the V&A. These include 2023’s Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto which welcomed 376,000 visitors, and 2019’s exhibition dedicated to fashion house Christian Dior which smashed the V&A's attendance record, attracting almost 595,000 people in seven months.
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But this display will also be the main fashion event at the museum of the year, as the V&A’s fashion gallery has recently been closed for major renovations, and it won’t reopen until spring 2027.
What to expect inside the Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art exhibition
The V&A exhibition will comprise over 200 objects from a diverse range of mediums, including garments, accessories, jewellery, paintings, photographs, sculpture, furniture, perfumes and archive material.
Visitors will be able to see some of Elsa Schiaparelli’s most radical designs which have already been acquired for the V&A collection. Examples include the 1938 ‘Skeleton’ dress and the ‘Tears’ dress, as well as a hat shaped to look like an upside-down shoe. All three were conceived in collaboration with the great artist — and Schiaparelli’s great friend — Salvador Dalí.
Art lovers will also enjoy the show, as works by Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau and Man Ray will also be on display, and the exhibition will also reference the popularity of Schiaparelli’s designs for film and theatre productions. The story of the London branch of Schiaparelli and its clients will be spotlighted for the very first time in a museum display too.
There’ll be brand new research presented alongside the objects, undertaken by art and fashion curators and focused on Elsa Schiaparelli collaborations. It will highlight the history of a female
entrepreneur and showcase her celebrated, yet little-seen garments from the history of fashion.
Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art tickets
In an unusual move, the V&A released tickets for the Schiaparelli exhibition in an initial batch of just the first six weekends on 10 December 2025. At time of writing, these have almost sold out. The rest of the tickets will be released in early 2026.
Be warned though: Schiaparelli tickets are not cheap. Adult tickets will cost you £30 on weekends, and a slightly cheaper £28 on weekdays. Under 26s will pay only £20 at weekends. As always, V&A members will get in free. Due to its popularity — it could well be one of the most popular London exhibitions of the year — pre-booking is highly recommended to avoid disappointment.
New Schiaparelli exhibition catalogue
A blockbuster exhibition always comes with a blockbuster accompanying book. This exhibition will have a 256-page, lavishly illustrated catalogue — also titled Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art — which will explore the origins and legacy of one of fashion's greatest innovators. It will feature images of all the items on display in the exhibition. It’ll be published on 19 March and is also one of my picks for the best new art books of 2026. It's available to pre-order right now.
Other V&A exhibitions in 2026
The other major V&A exhibition in 2026 that has been announced is a show all about contemporary art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific, in what is billed as landmark collaboration with the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA).
Fashion-lovers can also head to the V&A’s sister-site at the V&A Dundee. That museum will host an exhibition exploring the history of the catwalk, from the private salons of the late 19th century to today’s immersive, live-streamed runway experiences. Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show will open on 03 April 2026.
2026 will also be the first full-year of operation for the new V&A East Storehouse in London's east end. But in the spring, it will also be joined by the even-newer V&A East Museum.
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