“Nobody has been able to pronounce my name properly … but everybody knows what it means,” Elsa Schiaparelli once said, with typical self-assuredness.

A protagonist of surrealism, the Italian-born fashion designer was an extraordinary couturier who pushed the bounds of creativity, leaving her mark on Paris fashion and beyond. Dazzling, theatrical, witty and avant garde, her creative genius is the subject of the V&A’s latest blockbuster exhibition Fashion becomes Art in London.

More than 400 objects have been brought together by a fashion, art and photography curatorial team for the first exhibition of its kind in the UK to showcase her unique contribution.

It is Schiaparelli’s connection to the Surrealist movement that she is most renowned for, through her creative collaborations with the artists Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau.

One of the most iconic designs is Schiaparelli’s lobster dress, created in 1937 in collaboration with Dali, which demonstrates how her work blurred the lines between fashion and art – a theme articulated throughout the show. The lobster dress is on display in the room titled Creative Constellations, next to Dali’s famous lobster telephone which was created a year after the dress.

Schiaparelli was a designer who transformed what fashion could be, and who saw dress designing not as a profession but as art. Her autobiography, Shocking Life, highlights her innovative approach. She was the first to use shoulder pads and animal print, and will forever be known as the woman who created the colour of shocking pink. The........

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