P—027—SCH

Schiaparelli — Fashion Becomes Art

Reference

P—027—SCH

Project

Exhibition Design

Location

London

Client

Victora & Albert Museum

Consultants

Graphic design — V&A Studio / Lighting Design — Studio ZNA / Sound Design — Father / AV Design — Luke Halls Studio / Exhibition Build Contractor — SetWorks

Design Team

Madhav Kidao, Brando Posocco, Claudia Robalino, Raphaé Memon, Michael Chomette

Status

Completed

Introduction

The UK’s first exhibition dedicated to Elsa Schiaparelli. Spanning from the 1920s to the present day, the exhibition traces the house’s radical beginnings through to its contemporary evolution under Creative Director Daniel Roseberry.

The exhibition presents over 400 objects, 85 historic Schiaparelli looks, 25 contemporary designs by Daniel Roseberry , accessories, jewellery, perfumes, paintings, sculpture, and photography.

The exhibition is guided by the concept of déjà vu, a sense of familiarity that feels subtly altered, expressed spatially rather than through overt surrealist tropes. A black-and-white, textural world becomes the backdrop for Schiaparelli’s work, where precision, repetition, and distortion shape a spatial experience that is both visceral and disorienting. Layered thresholds, looping sightlines, and shifting perspectives create a non-linear journey where visitors encounter objects multiple times, each moment transformed by light, context, and perception.

Walls running in one direction rise to 3.3 metres, while those in the perpendicular axis reach 4.4 metres, creating interlaced spaces where visitors can loop back to previously encountered objects, skewing visitors’ sense of time and place while guiding them through a rhythm of discovery. Mirrors, shadows, and controlled lighting destabilise orientation, producing a suspended, twilight-like atmosphere.

Tactility is also an important dimension in this exhibition. Texture-rich materials like suede paint, fabric silk wallpaper and fur to evoke luxury, craftsmanship and irreverence, making the architecture itself become an instrument of illusion. In a unique twist, a significant portion of the exhibition build is crafted in heavy 280 gsm hemp paper, becoming architectural through standing seams, embossed textures, and intricate folds, while the rest of the walls resemble gelatin prints and the grain of black and white film photography. Explicit or more hidden references to all her collaborators like Jean Michael Frank, Man Ray, Giacometti and Cecil Beaton to name a few, are hidden throughout the build.