Sandra‘s Closet

«Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art» – an exhibition that sets out to explore the rare moment when clothing transcends function and becomes pure expression – opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum with a quiet sense of occasion that felt entirely fitting.

The evening began, as such evenings should, with a sense of anticipation. London suspended between history and spectacle, the museum preparing to open its doors to a world that has always lived slightly beyond the real.

With my dear friend Pernilla Bennet of House of Bennet at the opening.

I had flown in for the occasion, drawn not only by the promise of the exhibition but by something more personal, a long-standing admiration for Elsa Schiaparelli and the singular universe she created. Dressing for the night felt less like choosing an outfit and more like stepping into a dialogue with her legacy.

I wore Schiaparelli, of course, an ensemble rich in detail, anchored by those unmistakable buttons that are never merely functional but small sculptures in their own right. There is something transformative about wearing Schiaparelli: you don’t simply dress, you participate.

Beautiful opening speech by Tristram Hunt, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

With actress and singer Minnie Driver at the opening reception.

Almost as if the spirit of Elsa Schiaparelli was still quietly moving through the room.

With one of the UK’s first hijab-wearing models, Ikram Abdi Omar, both in Schiaparelli.

The Opening: A Living Surrealist Moment

The reception unfolded with a kind of cinematic elegance. Guests moved through the museum like characters in a dream Elsa herself might have approved of, where fashion, art, and personality dissolve into one another. It felt fitting, because Schiaparelli never believed in boundaries.

Elsa was not simply a designer; she was an instigator of ideas. She introduced shocking pink as a cultural statement, elevated the ordinary into the extraordinary, and treated garments as canvases for wit and subversion. Her fascination with the surreal, lobster dresses, skeleton gowns, tears rendered in silk, was never decorative. It was a way of seeing.

She brought so many extraordinary ideas into fashion. Her eye for surrealism, her collaborations with artists like Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau, her instinct for symbolism and illusion, and her fascination with remarkable details, especially her extraordinary buttons, helped redefine what couture could be.

On display is the Schiaparelli Harlequin Coat from the S/S 1939 Haute Couture collection entitled «Commedia dell’ Arte» inspired from Man Ray’s 1939 painting entitled «Les Beaux Temps».

Elsa did not merely create beauty; she created conversation. Her work had humor, elegance, and often an intentional sense of disturbance. That was part of her brilliance. She understood that fashion becomes unforgettable when it surprises the eye and unsettles expectation just enough to make people look again.

A Morning with the Past and Present

The following morning offered something rarer: stillness, and the privilege of understanding.

I was guided through the exhibition by Sonnet Stanfill, Senior Curator of Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), whose clarity and sensitivity brought the entire curation into focus. It was a deeply impressive experience and one that stayed with me on a very personal level.

One room is dedicated to Elsa Schiaparelli’s amazing jackets with incredible details.

What makes this exhibition remarkable is its rhythm. Rather than isolating history, it stages a conversation, one room dedicated to Elsa’s original creations, the next to the contemporary vision of Daniel Roseberry.

Daniel Roseberry’s dreamy designs.

This alternation is more than curatorial, it is philosophical. It allows you to see, almost viscerally, how a house survives time without becoming static.

Three rare pieces from Elsa Schiaparelli’s iconic 1938 Circus Collection.

From Elsa to Daniel Roseberry – a legacy reimagined, the inspiration found within the exhibition itself.

Elsa’s pieces remain astonishing: technically daring, intellectually mischievous, and deeply emotional. But what I just love as much is how seamlessly Roseberry’s work stands beside them. He has achieved something exceedingly rare. His designs do not imitate; they translate. The codes, bold symbolism, sculptural silhouettes, that slightly disquieting elegance, remain intact, yet they are sharpened for a contemporary eye.

Daniel Roseberry with me

For me, he is one of the most compelling designers working today. There is precision in his work, but also courage. He understands that Schiaparelli must provoke, not just please.

Walking through the exhibition, I felt something unexpectedly personal: a renewed conviction in the beauty of collecting fashion. To preserve, to curate, to believe that garments carry memory and meaning. And, quietly, the thought emerged, perhaps one day, my own collection Sandra’s Closet will live in a space like this.

Conversations at Annabel’s

From the museum, I hurried to Annabel’s, where another layer of the story unfolded in conversation.

On stage, Daniel Slater, Director of Exhibitions at the V&A, spoke alongside Francesco Pastore, Head of Heritage and Culture at Schiaparelli, about the making of the exhibition. What appears effortless to the visitor is, in truth, the result of years, seven, as it turns out, of discussion, negotiation, research, and patience. To gather these pieces, to shape them into a coherent narrative, required not only expertise but devotion.

Toward the end, Delphine Bellini, CEO of Schiaparelli, joined the discussion, and I found myself asking a question that had lingered with me: why choose Daniel Roseberry, at the time a relatively unknown name outside industry circles, despite his important work with Thom Browne?

Her answer was as precise as it was revealing. Roseberry had submitted a portfolio so extraordinary, so clear in its vision, that the decision became inevitable. What he offered was not just skill, but perspective: an ability to bridge heritage and modernity through what she described, beautifully, as a «quite disturbing view.»

It is exactly that tension, between beauty and unease, elegance and provocation, that defines Schiaparelli at its best.

Daniel Roseberry’s now-iconic look worn by Gigi Hadid in Cannes with its sculptural lung necklace born from an unexpected production accident, turned into one of Schiaparelli’s most striking modern signatures.

A House That Refuses to Sleep

What this exhibition ultimately makes clear is that Schiaparelli is not a house anchored in nostalgia. It is alive, restless, intelligent, and unwilling to settle.

Elsa once stood at the intersection of fashion and art, reshaping both. Today, under Daniel Roseberry, that spirit continues, not as imitation, but as evolution.

And as I left, still carrying the echo of the night before and the clarity of the morning after, one thought remained: some maisons dress the body, others shape identity. Schiaparelli does something rarer, it changes the way you see.

And that, perhaps, is the real triumph of «Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art»: it shows that the most powerful fashion does not simply dress the body. It leaves a mark on the mind.

Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art runs until 8 November 2026 at V&A South Kensington.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht
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For F/W 2023, Jeremy Scott does pop-punk the MOSCHINO way. With a nod to Salvador Dalí’s famous painting «The Persistence of Memory», Scott’s hems and shoes looked a little like the famous Melting Clocks.

The show started with a series of beautiful separates with «melted hemlines». Every model completed the look with a towering, spikey mohawk hairdo. I loved the aristo-punk vibe of the collection, featuring large crystal gems and even larger metal spikes as motifs.

Stunning dresses, mostly embellished, will make the heart of every punk princess leap with joy. One of my favorite looks was a soft lavender petticoat tulle gown with matching opera gloves covered in a flashy array of gems.

In general, the Italian Maison’s collections are often characterized by a huge sense of playfulness. This collection seems more «wearable» with lots of great evening options. I love it!

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht / Nadia Krawiecka
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Called the «last of the adventurers», New York photographer Peter Beard was an artist and a naturalist to whom the word «wild» was roundly applied, both for his death-defying photos as well as his crazy playboy-esque lifestyle. He photographed African fauna at great personal risk, and well into old age could party until dawn. He had been missing for 19 days when he was found dead yesterday in Montauk at the age of 82.

In a statement shared on social media, his family states: «We are all heartbroken by the confirmation of our beloved Peter’s death. We want to express our deep gratitude to the East Hampton police and all who aided them in their search, and also to thank the many friends of Peter and our family who have sent messages of love and support during these dark days.  Peter was an extraordinary man who led an exceptional life. He lived life to the fullest; he squeezed every drop out of every day. He was relentless in his passion for nature, unvarnished and unsentimental but utterly authentic always. He was an intrepid explorer, unfailingly generous, charismatic, and discerning. Peter defined what it means to be open: open to new ideas, new encounters, new people, new ways of living and being. Always insatiably curious, he pursued his passions without restraints and perceived reality through a unique lens. Anyone who spent time in his company was swept up by his enthusiasm and his energy. He was a pioneering contemporary artist who was decades ahead of his time in his efforts to sound the alarm about environmental damage. His visual acuity and elemental understanding of the natural environment was fostered by his long stays in the bush and the ‘wild-deer-ness’ he loved and defended. He died where he lived: in nature. We will miss him every day.»

PETER BEARD
I’ll Write Whenever I Can, Koobi Fora, Lake Rudolf, Kenya, 1965
It went for £55.200 at a Christie’s auction in 2008.

Peter Beard was world-renown for his beautiful and intimate images of Africa and African wildlife, and rose to fame for keeping diaries, filled with drawings, blood, and other materials, that were considered works of art unto themselves.

Young Peter Beard and Salvador Dalí

Born into privilege of railroad and tobacco fortunes, the extremely handsome young man led a bon vivant’s life, partying around the world, but always returning to his retreats in New York, including Montauk, as well as Kenya, where some of his most iconic wildlife photography was taken.
After studying at Yale University he went to Africa and documented the deaths of thousands of elephants and other wildlife in Tsavo National Park, which became the basis of his 1965 book «The End of the Game», which influenced a generation of artists as well as wildlife conservationists.

Sketches from the book «Peter Beard» that showcase how meticulously he kept his diaries.

In 1996, he was injured by a charging elephant that crushed him with its head. The incident left him with fractures in his pelvis and massive internal bleeding. After almost dying, he was put back together by Kenyan surgeons and eventually recovered.

Peter Beard & and his wife Cheryl Tiegs in the early ’80s

He was married three times, first briefly to Minnie Cushing Beard Coleman in 1967, then to supermodel Cheryl Tiegs from 1982 to 1986. He had affairs with Candice Bergen and Jackie Onassis‘s sister Lee Radziwill, babysat for John Kennedy Jr. and his sister Caroline, and was the man who discovered Somali model Iman, who went on to marry rocker David Bowie. He married his current wife, Nejma Khanum Beard, in 1986. They have a daughter, Zara Beard, who is 31.

PETER BEARD
Orphan Cheetah Triptych, 1968
It went for $662.500 at a Christie’s auction in 2012.

«I thought of Africa as a place where there was still plenty of room, where you could actually live life rather than have your life run by a world where you wake up in the morning to a traffic jam, rush to catch a bus, struggle to get to the office.» Peter Beard

Iman through the lens of Peter Beard

One of Beard’s most iconic photographs was of naked model Maureen Gallagher handfeeding a giraffe at his 45-acre Hog Ranch outside of Nairobi. He had wanted to use Iman but she bailed on him. One print sold for $662.500 in 2012.

Gallagher said she had a long affair with Beard, following the trip to Kenya. «I went there for three weeks and stayed there for three months,» she said. «I cancelled all my bookings. I was 22 and I was in love.»

PETER BEARD
Maureen Gallagher, Hog Ranch, 1987
It went for $43.750 at a Christie’s auction in 2013. 

PETER BEARD
Veruschka von Lehndorff and Galo Galo Guyn, Hunting Block 29, Capturing Rhino for ‘Starvo’ National Park, 1963-1964
It went for $27.500 at a Christie’s auction in 2012. 

Peter and Nejma Beard in Montauk in 2003. Photo: Mary Ellen Mark

One funny anecdote that only happened in 2017, when his third wife, Nejma, had him placed in a psych ward at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital after he brought two Russian prostitutes to their home at the age of 79. She claimed he was suicidal when he stumbled back to their Manhattan apartment at 6am after a night partying in the city’s Meatpacking District. I have to admit this is quite a move to educate your husband!

Young Peter Beard – Half Byron, half Tarzan (1950s)

Despite his vibrant character, he will always be remembered for his extraordinary works of art, from his well-known images of threatened African animals to his fashion photographs and elaborate diary pages. He leaves a legacy and will be missed.

Rest in Peace, Peter Beard!

LoL, Sandra

Photos: Via Getty, Wire, and Courtesy of the Beard Family