Of the many collaborations between Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dali, the lobster print dress is undoubtedly the most famous.

Salvador Dalí had already featured a lobster in his works, notably with a Lobster Telephone designed in 1936. On this beach dress, from the Schiaparelli Haute Couture Summer 1937 collection, he designed a lobster motif interspersed with sprigs of parsley printed on white organdy. Legend has it that Dalí wanted to add real mayonnaise to the dress, which Schiaparelli refused.

This dress was immortalized by Wallis Simpson. It was part of a trousseau of 18 gowns that Elsa Schiaparelli had designed for her, on the occasion of her marriage to the Duke of Windsor. He renounced the British crown for love of this woman. The future duchess caused a scandal in this dress, particularly through Cecil Beaton's photographs published in Vogue. Indeed, the placement of the crustacean gave the garment an erotic charge and contrasted sharply with the virginal white of the organdy.