More than 200 works reveal how fashion shaped Salvador Dalí’s vision of identity, desire and the body.
‘Gala in Schiaparelli’s Shoe Hat’, Salvador Dalí, 1938
Opening at Palazzo Reale Milano on 24 September 2026, ‘Dalí e la Moda’ is the first major international exhibition devoted to the relationship between Salvador Dalí and fashion.
On view until 31 January 2027, the exhibition brings together more than 200 paintings, drawings, photographs, garments, jewels and archival materials from the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí and international museums. The selection explores how Dalí reshaped the representation of the body through surrealism, spectacle and material culture.
His collaborations with Elsa Schiaparelli, Coco Chanel, Christian Dior and Paco Rabanne, alongside his work for ‘Vogue’ and ‘Harper’s Bazaar’, reveal fashion as an essential part of his creative language. Gala Dalí occupies a central role as muse, model and strategist in the construction of their public image.
‘Singularities’, Salvador Dalí, c. 1935
‘The Eye of Time’, Salvador Dalí, 1949
‘The Spectre of Sex-Appeal’, Salvador Dalí, c. 1934
Structured across six rooms, the exhibition moves from ‘The Secret Life of Fashion’ and ‘The Wardrobe’ to ‘Performing Fashion’ and Dalí’s influence on contemporary designers. The scenography, conceived by fashion historian Judith Clark, translates the artist’s theatrical imagination into the exhibition space.
Through clothing, images and objects, the exhibition presents Dalí as a precursor of contemporary conceptual fashion, where identity becomes performance and the dressed body a site of desire and transformation.
‘Three Young Surrealist Women Holding in Their Arms the Skins of an Orchestra’, Salvador Dalí, 1936
Salvador Dalí, 1926
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