At Edward’s suggestion, Dali designed a sofa for the drawing room based on the lips in his collage. Mae West’s face that could be used as a surrealist apartmentAnd Edward oversaw the production of lamps made from stacks of bronzed champagne coupes. Incidentally, the Dali Lips sofa was red – which is significant, because when, later, James commissioned one in a shocking pink color, perhaps inspired by the Italian fashion designer. Elsa SchiaparelliHe ‘couldn’t even bring himself to sit on it’, recalls Kathryn Johnson, the curator. Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design, 1924 – Today at the Design Museum, which ran from 2022 to 2023. Everyone has a line, apparently—even someone who gleefully accepted Dali’s idea that his London house, the walls were to be ‘roughened like the belly of a sick dog’ (Edward originally planned to cover them in dog hair).
Schiaparelli haute couture of the 1930s and 2020s is, arguably, the apotheosis of surrealist design. The brilliance of both founder Elsa Schiaparelli and current creative director Daniel Rosebery is being celebrated in one of V&A South Kensington’s blockbuster fashion exhibitions. Like many historical female figures, Elsa’s cultural significance, particularly her role in the Surrealist movement, was somewhat forgotten, but not anymore. in Schiaparelli: Fashion becomes art (until November 8), she is recognized not only as one of the most important couturiers of her era, but also as a pioneer of Surrealist design and a collaborator with Salvador Dali, Man Ray and Jean Cocteau. While her fashion house was dormant for decades, Schiaparelli’s designs – such as lobsters, stars, insects and isolated body parts – endured, and were adopted by others.
