A blockbuster exhibition explores how surrealist designer Elsa Schiaparelli redefined fashion | CNN

Fashion has long danced alongside the medium of art, with designers taking inspiration from the work of history’s great artists. With its technical prowess and avant-garde ambitions, many would argue that fashion belongs on the same plane as painting or sculpture. A monumental new show at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) celebrates the connection between the two disciplines in a more urgent way. “Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art” — which opens Saturday, March 28 —presents the groundbreaking work of the late Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli as embodying the cultural gravity of art. Can the act of wearing a bold or even challenging dress change the way we see the status quo, beauty standards or the purpose of clothing itself? It can — and Schiaparelli herself showed us precisely how over a handful of decades in the early 20th century. Nearly 100 years later, her predecessor, present-day Schiaparelli creative director Daniel Roseberry, has picked up her mantle, combining thrilling design with the machinery of celebrity to change our notions of female beauty and power. The exhibition pairs their work together, showing the value of shocking style in a moment of