The Tears Dress
Elsa Schiaparelli · February 1938
Surrealist fashion
A garment can make the eye doubt what it sees. Schiaparelli and Dalí turned that possibility into dress through imagery that moves between printed illusion and physical form.
Visual illusionUnexpected objectsArtist collaborations
About Surrealist fashion
Surrealist fashion transforms familiar objects and images into unexpected clothing. Elsa Schiaparelli’s work with artists including Salvador Dalí made this exchange tangible. In their 1938 Tears Dress, a print suggests rips in the fabric and the flesh beneath; the matching veil contains openings constructed through cutting, sewing and layering. One image becomes both a flat illusion and a physical alteration.
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- Elsa SchiaparelliView garment · February 1938
Fashion as a visual question