Lobster dress

The lobster dress is a 1937 dress designed by Elsa Schiaparelli. It features a large lobster painted by Salvador Dalí. Design The dress is an A-line off-white silk evening or dinner dress with a crimson waistband featuring a large lobster painted by Salvador Dalí onto the skirt. The initial lobster motif was drawn by Dali and printed onto the dress by the silk designer Sache. The dress is also illustrated with sprigs of parsley. The dress is made from printed silk organza and synthetic horsehair. The front of the dress is 52 inches (132 cm) in length, with a waist measurement of 22 inches (56 cm). Schiaparelli prevented Dali from adding mayonnaise to the completed dress. History From 1934, Dalí had started incorporating lobsters into his work, including New York Dream-Man Finds Lobster in Place of Phone shown in the magazine American Weekly in 1935, and the mixed-media Lobster Telephone (1936). Dali saw lobsters as symbolic of sexuality. The lobster is placed low on the dress, between the legs of the wearer, with the tail of the lobster fanning upward toward the wearer's Mons Veneris, and its claws towards her calves. The lobster dress made its debut as part of Schiaparelli's Summer/Fall 1937 collection.