Bound by their sense of surrealism and love of shock-factor, Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí’s creative collaboration is lauded as the very first example of an art and fashion collaboration.
For the house’s Summer 1937 collection, Dalí painted and printed a lobster on one of Schiaparelli’s dresses. The iconic ‘Lobster Dress’ was immortalized after Cecil Beaton photographed Wallis Simpson wearing the dress during her honeymoon with the Duke of Windsor.
Inspired by a comical picture that Gala had taken of Dalí with a women’s shoe on his head, Schiaparelli unveiled the iconic 'Shoe Hat' during her Winter 1937-38 collection.
Dalí and Schiaparelli developed the ‘Bureau-Drawer Suit’ in 1936, using buttons and pockets to evoke desk drawers. The model is holding an issue of Minotaure, a surrealist magazine issue with a cover designed by Dalí.
Presented during the Spring 1938 ‘Le Cirque’ collection, Dalí inspired Schiaparelli to create the avant-garde ‘Skeleton Dress’ with protruding bones. The dress was also inspired by a circus act entitled “the skeleton man.”
The trompe-l’œil ‘Tears Dress’, also presented during the ‘Le Cirque’ collection, was inspired by Dalí’s ‘Three Young Surrealist Women Holding in their Arms the Skins of an Orchestra.’
Schiaparelli comissioned Dalí to create the art for her 1943 fragrance Shocking Radiance.
In 1946, Dalí designed the advertisements and bottle for Schiaparelli’s newest fragrance, Le Roy Soleil.
In 1935, for their first collaboration, Dalí and Schiaparelli conceived a compact made to look like a telephone dial.
Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí, 1949.